
c<M*»^i\Wvl^f^V<!Sx\^\\-S\><!^\\A\\'^\\V^^ V 








LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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THE DAIRYMAN'S MANUAL 



A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON 



THE DAIRY. 



INCLUDINO 

THE SELECTION OF THE FARM, THE CULTIVATION OF CROPS, THE 
SELECTION AND BREEDING OF COWS, MANAGEMENT OF THE 
MILK, MAKING BUTTER AND CHEESE, AND THE TREAT- 
MENT OF DISEASES INCIDENT TO DAIRY COWS. 



BY 



HENRY STEWART, 
W 

3 MANUAL/' " IREIG4.: 
AND OKCHARD," ETC. 



AITTHOB 01" "THI SHKPHEBD'S MANUAL, "IRRIGATION FOE THE FARM, QABDEKi 



ILLUSTRATED. 



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y- V 







NEW YORK: 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 

751 BROADWAY. 

1888. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by the 

ORANGE JUDD CO., 

In the Ofijce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PUBLISHEKS' mTRODUCTION. 



The dairy industry has advanced with greater strides 
during the last two decades than any other of the great 
agricultural interests. Formerly it was mainly confined 
to New England and the Middle States. Now, however, 
in the prairie States dairying has become a leading in- 
dustry, and it is notable that in the more recently settled 
territories of the Northwest, the cheese factory or cream- 
ery is one of the earliest features in a ncAv settlement. 
During the period referred to, the entire business of 
dairying has become almost revolutionized. The exten- 
sion of the associated system, the invention of new and 
greatly improved implements and machinery, and new 
processes, have occasioned these radical changes. The 
present work embodies a full knowledge of improved 
methods, and. all that is latest and most valuable in 
dairy lore. Its author has long occupied an advanced 
position in the march of dairy improvement, as a prac- 
tical dairyman, a scientific investigator, and a writer for 
the press. The book embraces the entire subject, and 
will prove a trustworthy hand-book to every one who 
is interested in any department of dairying. 
(in) 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. Page 
Dairy Farming.. 7 

Chapter II. 
Dairy Farms _ 17 

Chapter III. 
Cows for the Dairy __ 26 

Chapter IV. 
Breeding and Rearing Dairy Cows. _ 50 

Chapter V. 
Crops for Dairy Farms 59 

Chapter VI. 
Grasses for Pastures and Meadows _._ 66 

Chapter VII. 
Soiling and Soiling Crops.. 80 

Chapter VIII. 
Ensilage of Fodder 88 

Chapter IX. 
Dairy Buildings .-. 97 

Chapter X. 
Water Supply.. 118 

Chapter XI. 
Foods for Use in the Dairy _.. 127 

Chapter XII. 
Feeding Rations _ .147 

Chapter XIII. 
Management of Cows in the Stable. .175 

Chapter XIV. 
Rearing Calves for the Dairy 184 

Chapter XV. 
Milk 191 

(J) 



VI TABLE OP CONTENTS. 

Chapter XVI. 
Cream 207 

Chapter XVII. 
Milking and Milking Apparatus 213 

Chapter XVin. 
The Care of Milk 231 

Chapter XIX. 
Cream and its Peculiarities. 259 

Chapter XX. 
Churning and Churns 275 

Chapter XXI. 
Butter --- 286 

Chapter XXII. 
Creameries 309 

Chapter XXIII. 
Ice-Houses - 324 

Chapter XXIV. 
Cheese Making • 336 

Chapter XXV. 
Milk Dairying •- 397 

Chapter XXVI. 
Winter Dairying 407 

Chapter XXVII. 
The Family Dairy 418 

Chapter XXVm. 
Diseases of Cows 426 



THE DAIRYMAN'S MANUAL. 



CHAPTER I. 

DAIRY FARMING. 

Dairy farming has always been, and will always be, 
the most profitable branch of agriculture. It is a manu- 
facturing industry, and a skilled manufacture; and man- 
ufacturing finished products from raw materials gives 
the greatest profits to the labor and skill which the enter- 
prising man devotes to the industry. It is so with all 
manufactures. The cotton planter, who grows the cotton 
for the spinner and weaver, is hard worked, lives poorly, 
and never has been known to accumulate a sufficient 
fortune to relieve him from work ; but the cotton manu- 
facturers, who work up the planter's product, are pro- 
verbially wealthy, and build up rapid and large fortunes 
from their skill and enterprise. It is so in all agricul- 
tural labor. The grain farmer is not only the slave and 
the victim of all the adversities of season and weather 
and markets, but he sees the richest portion of his land 
carried off in his exhaustive crops, while these leave him 
nothing where with to restore his fields to fertility; and he 
is in the unhappy condition — if he is a thoughtful man 
—of one who is living upon his capital, and is daily eating 

(7) 



8 THE dairyman's MAKUAL. 

from a circumscribed and fixed store, the end of which 
he sees gradually approaching day by day, without any 
means in his power of averting the impending exhaustion. 
But when he feeds his grain, and alternates these crops 
with grass and feeding crops, and transforms them into 
cattle or sheep, horses or hogs, he becomes a manufac- 
turer — partially so, it is true — and he immediately reaps 
not only a second profit from his products, but he finds 
in his manure heaps a permanent source of fertility which 
flows over and replenishes his soil. 

The dairy farmer has a still further advantage in that 
he not only rears and feeds cattle, but he keeps cows from 
which he procures milk, and of this milk he makes but- 
ter and cheese, consuming by his young stock all the 
wastes of these manufactured articles, and selling from 
his farm a highly finished product in a concentrated form 
which carries away practically nothing in the shape of 
the fertile elements of his land. Moreover, he purchases 
cheap waste products and turns these into costly finished 
products, reserving the valuable wastes of them for the 
enriching of his soil. For instance, the farmer who sells 
a ton of hay for fifteen dollars has nothing but this 
money in return for his labor and a certain quantity of 
the richest elements of the fertility of the soil. It is the 
same with the farmer who sells thirty bushels of corn from 
an acre of land for the same sum of money. The farmer 
who feeds the hay or the corn to a steer or to sheep 
doubles his income, and retains a large portion of the 
substanije of his crops, which is returned to the land. 
But the dairyman who makes cheese or butter trebles 
his income, and retains nearly everything of value which 
the crops he has fed to his cows have drawn from the 
soil, and he has expended nothing but his labor, for which 
he receives liberal pay. If he purchase hay from his 
neighbor, he makes a handsome profit from this; and if 
he buys bran or other feeding substances, he makes a 



DAIRY FARMI2!^G. 

profit from them; and thus turns his labor to the most 
useful and valuable account. ^*In all labor there is 
profit " is as true to-day as when it was written by the 
wisest of men, the only qualification being — as we may 
assume is implied in the proverb — that the labor is wisely 
and rightly directed. And thus the dairyman, who of all 
farmers expends the most labor upon his farm and in his 
business, must necessarily reap the most profit. 

WHAT A DAIRYMAN SHOULD BE. 

It is a trite but true adasre that in all sorts of farminor 
*^ there is more in the man than there is in the land ;" 
and this applies in the most forcible manner to the dairy- 
man. For he must not only be a skillful farmer, but a 
good judge of cattle; a careful, cautious man, and habit- 
ually regular in his habits; endowed with the virtues of 
patience and perseverance, and good sound common 
sense; he must be studious, of a retentive memory, and 
able to judge wisely as to points of his business w^hich 
may be in dispute; a good business man; and of a cerM^"" 
refined disposition and habits, and exceedingly neat and 
particular in his person. All these characteristics are 
indispensable for success in his vocation, and for the 
following reasons : — 

1st. He must be a skillful farmer, because he must 
grow a large variety of crops, and make his soil exceed- 
ingly productive by the aid of the large quantity of 
manure he may make and gather; and he must expend 
the crops he raises in the most economical and effective 
manner. He 'must understand well the character and 
uses of different kinds of soil, so that he may select the 
best suited for his purpose; and he must know how to 
manage such land as he can best select or procure with 
the greatest effect and success. His profit depends upon 
the raising of large crops, and those of the most valuable 
kinds for feeding; and he must thoroughly understand 



10 THE DAIRYMAN^S MANUAL. 

the different methods of culture for gram, grass, root 
and fodder crops. All this is indispensable for the suc- 
cessful prosecution of dairy farming. 

2d. He must be a good judge of cattle, because the 
cows are the tools of his trade, and without the best tools 
no good work can be done. Moreoyer, there is such a 
large yariety of breeds, and such a great variation in the 
quality of cows in use for dairy purposes, that without 
good judgment, and some accurate knowledge as a basis 
for the exercise of judgment in this respect, a dairyman 
would be at a loss how to make a proper selection, and 
would be yery apt to make a serious and perhaps ruinous 
blunder at the outset. There are exceedingly great 
diiferences in cows, and yet, as a rule, good cows are 
easily distinguished from poor and unprofitable ones, and 
the distinguishing marks and characteristics should be 
well known to the dairyman who expects to make his 
profit from them. So, too, he should be able to choose 
the most promising calyes from which to replenish his 
stock, and also to choose a good sire for his calyes, that 
he may steadily improye his herd in character and yalue. 
It is also indispensable for full success in the dairy that 
the dairyman should be able to judge of the character of 
the cows he is feeding, that he may discard those Avhich 
are not profitable and keep only those which pay the 
best for keeping ; and while there are certain accurate 
tests by which this can be ascertained, yet it is a yaluable 
acquisition for a dairyman that he can tell at a glance 
which cows of his herd are the best and which he had 
better get rid of as soon as practicable. 

3d. Carefulness in eyery detail, cautious supervision 
oyer his stock, and in every little matter which calls for 
change or modification of method, are necessary qualifica- 
tions in the dairy. A thousand small things are coming 
up at times which need foresight to guard against, and 
caution to avoid or evade. There are so many contin- 



DAIRY FARMIi^G. 11 

gencies which are to be apprehended constantly, and so 
many accidents continually threaten to occur in this most 
intricate business, that unless one is naturally inclined to 
be careful in every matter of management, the accidents 
which will surely follow will be sufficient to rob the 
dairyman of his profit. For instance, a gate may be left 
open, and the cows thus get into a luxuriant clover field, 
beconiing bloated or otherwise injured, and some of 
them be permanently ruined ; or a cow may be left 
unfastened in her stall and spend the night roaming 
about the stable, molesting the other cows and perhaps 
injuring or even killing one or more of them. The feed 
box may be left open and the loose cow may be found 
dead in the morning from overgorging herself with the 
feed. The water trough may be permitted to overflow 
on a cold day and an icy spot thereby formed upon 
which a cow may slip and fatally injure herself. The 
root cellar may be left open and the roots become frozen, 
and this stock of indispensable feed be lost. The water 
trough may be leaking and the cows may go without a 
supply for the day, and half, the day's milk be lost. And 
so on all through the daily routine of work there are 
many chances of damage which are to be avoided only 
by the exercise of great care and constant caution. 

Eegularity too in every detail must not be neglected. 
It is one of the rarest attributes of a man, to be con- 
stantly regular to hours and minutes, and to methods. 
And yet it is of the utmost importance in the dairy. A 
cow is a machine for making milk and butter. This 
fact should never be lost sight of. And the cow must 
be fed and watered, and supplied with every attention: 
milked, turned out and turned in, protected from storm 
and weather, and in every way managed with perfect 
regularity. She is an accurate time keeper, and if her 
feed is late she frets, and fretting wastes milk, and the 
milk loses cream. This fact was learned by the writer 



12 THE DAIBYMAN^S MAKUAL. 

in a manner wliicli could not be mistaken. It was the 
custom for years in his dairy to feed at five o'clock in 
the morning and to milk at six, every day but Sun- 
days, when the work was delayed an hour, or somewhat 
more. As an accurate record was kept of every milking 
of each cow, it was soon found that the quantity of 
milk on the Sunday evening and Monday morning fell off 
considerably, as much as from two to four pounds per 
cow, some cows losing considerably more than this — one 
nervous, fretting beast, which could scarcely wait her 
turn to be fed, losing the most. The result was so 
closely connected with the cause that tbere could be no 
doubt of it ; and yet out of regard for the day, and on 
the principle of doing as little work as possible on the 
day of rest, this loss was submitted to without complaint. 
The feed also, being prepared on Saturday afternoons 
for the whole of the next day and Monday morning, was 
not so fresh, and this irregularity had its share in the 
result. And so it is in other respects. The milk must 
be skimmed at regular periods ; the cream kept at a 
regular and even temperature, stirred at every addition 
of fresh cream to keep the quality and acidity properly 
adjusted ; the temperature in the milk-room must be 
regularly maintained at sixty-two degrees ; and every 
other detail is to be kept even and regular from hour to 
hour and from day to day. If the man or woman upon 
whom such work devolves has not an instinct of regu- 
larity, or has not made a habit of it by constant discipline, 
the labor will be irksome, irregularity will soon prevail, 
and the dairyman will not prosper as he might and 
should do. 

4th. Patience, perseverance and good common sense 
are requisite for success in the dairy. From the training 
of a calf to the last operation in dairying, patience is 
called for. The calves and cows should be well trained, 
and made docile and good natured. This cannot be se- 



DAIRY FARMING. 13 

cured unless the trainer is a patient man, able to control 
his feelings, and quell any rising anger stimulated by 
some accidental mischance. Impatience will make cows 
vicious, and their owners, at times, brutal. An acci- 
dental movement made by a cow, when the milker is 
careless or incautious, may cause a pail of milk to be 
overset. An impatient man will kick or beat the cow 
for his fault ; for, as we have seen, he should at every 
moment be on his guard for such accidents, and always 
ready to avoid them. We should remember that the 
man is the reasonable animal, able to exert self-control 
and to think, while the cow has only a natural instinct, 
and that alone makes her suspicious and always on the 
defensive against danger or attack. An unguarded, hasty 
approach may cause a cow to kick or attempt to do it 
instinctively, and to avoid ajl such dangers the dairy- 
man should, as we have already shown, be exceedingly 
cautious ; but when they occur, the greatest patience is 
to be exercised. Cows should be pets, without fear, and 
with affection for their keepers ; they are then most 
profitable to their owners ; ^and to bring them to this 
desirable condition of docility the dairyman must exercise 
great and constant patience with them. 

Perseverance and common sense will enable one to 
surmount difficulties and to apply proper remedies for 
them at the right moment. Dairy work is full of risks, 
and as few persons are able to meet every contingency 
until they have long experience, it is necessary to perse- 
vere in spite of disappointments, using good common 
sense to make the lessons learned from time to time 
available for future service. 

5th. A dairyman must be studious, and remember 
what he learns, applying his gathered information to the 
better working of his dair}^ There is no other business 
connected with agriculture which is so intricate and 
involves so many uncertainties, or which requires 



14 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

such constant application of special scientific experiment 
and of careful personal investigation and practice ; and 
to meet successfully all these and other requirements of 
his work, a dairyman must have at least a fair knowledge 
of dairy literature, and know what other dairymen are 
doing, and what is done at the numerous experiment 
stations and by private investigations. At least he must 
have a good handbook or manual for reference in case of 
need, and must not be averse to learn something from 
every possible source of information. Besides, one man 
alone is weak and helpless, and knowing this, the dairy- 
men have formed associations for mutual help and infor- 
mation. It is very necessary then that every dairyman 
should make himself competent to discuss at these meet- 
ings such questions as may arise, so that from a multi- 
tude of counselors he may find safety from the diflBculties 
which he meets constantly in his daily work. 

6th. The dairyman must be a good business man, and 
make himself acquainted with the ordinary principles of 
business ; able to keep accounts, and discipline himself 
as much as possible in the strict rules of regularity and 
promptness which conduce so much to success in any 
avocation. He is a manufacturer as well as a farmer ; a 
purchaser and a seller in the markets, and should there- 
fore keep himself acquainted with the markets, and 
should habituate himself to weigh and measure accur- 
ately everything he buys, everything he produces, and all 
that he sells, keeping strict account of all these matters. 
Otherwise he cannot tell where he loses and where he 
makes profit ; he will not know an unprofitable animal 
from a well paying one ; he will not know which are the 
best and most profitable crops to grow for use, or the 
best foods to purchase ; he will be groping in the dark all 
the time, and must necessarily suffer in pocket from his 
want of accurate knowledge of his business. 

Lastly, he should cultivate a certain refinement of man- 



DAIRY FARMING. 15 

ner and disposition, a kind, considerate and though t- 
iul habit, and, above all, practice the most thorough 
neatness and cleanliness in his person and manner. 
These requirements should be so constantly cultivated 
that they will become a second nature, an instinct which 
is so thoroughly and completely a part of the man's char- 
acter that they come into action spontaneously and with- 
out thought or effort on his part. For instance, the 
treatment of his cows should be instinctively kind and 
gentle, and the dairyman must so train himself to this 
habit, think of it so often, and make it so much a con- 
scientious duty and a regular system of action, that he 
will never be tempted to act otherwise. Mr. Harris 
Lewis, President of the New York State Dairymen's As- 
sociation, once remarked in reply to a question as to how 
cows should be treated, that every man should treat a 
cow as he would a lady; that is, with as much considera- 
tion for her comfort and happiness, and with the same 
gentleness and politeness. Politeness is simply the es- 
sence of thoughtful kindness, and this every dairyman 
should accord to his cows as a matter of common habit. 
Cows so used will well repay the favor, and in turn be- 
come kind and gentle, and never exasperate or annoy 
their owners with the common and troublesome vices of 
cows. Perfect cleanliness should be made a constant 
study, until it is so thoroughly a part of the daily life 
that a dairyman would no sooner milk a cow or handle 
milk or butter, or go about the work in the dairy, in an 
unclean condition or manner, than he would put a dirty 
hand in his food, or go to a social gathering all unwashed 
and with clothes reeking with filth. This scrupulous 
cleanliness is indispensable in the dairy, and it should be 
so made a part of the nature and disposition of the 
dairyman by constant self-training, that it will naturally 
apply itself to every part of the dairy work — the care 
of the stables, the management of the cows, frequent 



16 THE DAIRTMAK's MAKUAL. 

carding and brushing them, the washing of the udder 
when necessary, but always the wiping of it with a wet 
sponge or towel, the cleansing of the utensils, the careful 
protection of the milk from eyerything which would 
make it impure or offensive, the situation and care of the 
milk-house, the manner of milking, churning and pre-, 
paring the butter, with every other of the various de- 
tails of the work. In every way the most constant and 
perfect cleanliness being necessary, this habit must be so 
thorough and strong that no effort will be needed to ac- 
commodate one's self to it, and therefore it must be made 
a part of himself by every thorough and successful 
dairyman. 

In the following chapters it will be made apparent 
how very great and important results hang upon the 
merest trifles, as one might suppose, in dairy work. 
But it is in regard to these trifles that most of t*he great 
affairs of nature and industry depend for their results. 
A spark of the smallest size dropped into a powder maga- 
zine may lay a town in ruins or destroy a great ship and 
a thousand lives. One single«grain of sand will destroy 
the balance of a great mass of matter ; a single degree of 
temperature is sufficient to turn water into ice, or solid 
ice into liquid ; and is it strange, therefore, that little 
things should have an. important effect upon the quality 
and the value of the butter, and so affect seriously the 
question of a man's success in business, or of profit or 
loss in it ? For this reason my readers will be asked 
to consider every supposed trifle mentioned in these 
pages to be of importance to them, because good reasons 
can be given for it, and my own experience has shown in 
every case that the little things which may be referred 
to are really not small by any means, but of serious im- 
portance in their result. 



DAIRY FARMS. 17 

CHAPTER II. 
DAIRY FARMS. 

The choice of land for a dairy farm should be made 
with reference to some special points which have a great 
influence on the successful pursuit of the business. Some 
particular localities excel in this respect. Vermont, 
Western IS'ew York, Western Pennsylvania, the Western 
Reserve of Ohio, Central Wisconsin, and parts of Iowa, 
have become noted for the excellent quality of their dairy 
products, and have gained a high reputation as dairy 
districts. If we consider how truly these localities excel 
in this, we find they possess some special peculiarities of 
soil and herbage. All of them are underlaid by a lime- 
stone formation, and have a somewhat loamy open soil, 
which produces very sweet and nutritious herbage, con- 
sisting mainly of blue grass^ or, as it is sometimes called, 
June grass, the Poa pratensis of the botanists, and 
Kentucky blue grass of the seedsmen. They are some- 
what rolling or even hilly as to surface, are well drained 
naturally, and are well supplied with good pure water, 
more or less impregnated with lime, or as is commonly 
called, hard. As pasturage is the main reliance of the 
cows, the herbage and the character of the surface are 
important considerations ; for the quality of the grass 
has much to do with the character of the milk, cheese 
and butter, and the ease of locomotion of the cattle over 
gentle slopes, and the general healthfulness of such 
ground, are equally important. 

If we go abroad into foreign countries, we shall find 
that similar peculiarities of the land have conferred 
upon certain districts the character and reputation 
of excellent dairy localities. The English counties of 
Cheshire, where the famous Cheshire cheese is made, 



18 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

Derbyshire, where the first cheese factory in England 
was established, Leicestershire, where the exquisite 
Stilton cheese is produced, Wiltshire and Gloucester- 
shire, where also fine cheese of peculiar excellence is 
made, and some other places, as Dunlop in Scot- 
land, where Cheddar cheese was first made, and which 
had a reputation for its fine cheese a hundred years 
ago, are all noted for the very same peculiarities of 
geological formation, soil and character of surface and 
healthfulness. So that these circumstances being gen- 
eral, a rule may be predicated, that in choosing the local- 
ity and soil for a dairy farm, these characteristics should 
be sought in the land to be chosen. 

But not every farm can be of this kind, and not one- 
tenth part of the number of dairy farms are located in 
these districts. These farms are found everywhere, and 
cheese factories, creameries and private dairies are scat- 
tered thickly over the whole face of the country, from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and even bordering on the 
sea shores. Nevertheless, there are certain requisites 
to be secured whenever a farm is sought for dairying, 
which the farmer who is turning his attention to this 
lucrative pursuit would do well to recognize and under- 
stand. The choice may be large and wide, if these cer- 
tain necessary points are found. The land must be well- 
drained, or it will not grow full crops or the most 
nutritious herbage, and will not be healthful. If it is 
not so drained naturally, it should be done artificially 
and thoroughly. This is of the greatest importance, for 
often the richest and most fertile soil is in low bottom 
or swampy land, wanting only drainage to become pro- 
ductive of the best permanent grass, and such crops are 
the most valuable for feeding cows. The kind of soil is 
of less importance, because there are so many different 
ways of managing the business, that it is only necessary 
for the farmer to adapt his methods to his soil, to equal- 



DAIRY FARMS. 19 

ize whatever differences he miglit be obhged to meet. 
For instance, the cheaper lands, which are at a distance 
from the best markets, must be adapted to pasture, and 
the heavier clay soils of a somewhat moist character are 
preferable. Even a poorer class of soils, if they are 
adapted for grass and are cheap enough, may answer 
very well for dairy purposes; because it is the low cost of 
the product in localities which are distant from markets 
which enables dairymen to compete favorably with others 
whose land, nearer to markets, is more costly. Cheap 
land is a great advantage in dairying, for butter and 
cheese are concentrated products, and the cost of trans- 
portation is light. It was the cheap lands of the West 
which changed the center of the dairy business from 
Western New York to Wisconsin and Iowa ; for they 
attracted the best and most enterprising farmers, who 
removed thither, tempted by this advantage of cheap soil, 
and there, adopting the best methods of practice, quickly 
lifted from Western dairy products the stigma of their 
previous low quality, and raised them to the highest 
point of value in the Eastern markets by the force of their 
high excellence. It is this, too, which is constantly 
moving the center of the business to the West, and will 
soon bring the cheap and rich lands of the South into 
competition with the Eastern districts. 

But while this is true, the system of soiling and 
high culture of the land enables the owners of higher 
priced farms in the more thickly populated East to carry 
on the business profitably, by producing goods of fine 
quality, and supplying the best classes of consumers and 
the dealers in fine groceries with small quantities in a 
perfectly fresh condition, and by catering to the special 
wants of these purchasers, who desire their butter and 
cheese put up in attractive forms. For this purpose the 
kind of soil is of little account, as this class of dairymen 
are skillful farmers, who generally own fine stock, and 



20 THE dairyman's MAiq"UAL. 

know how to manage their farms in the most suitable 
manner for the production of soiling crops; and they are 
near the markets where cheap concentrated food can be 
procured. 

Some of the best fancy dairies are found near the large 
cities, upon light and inferior soils which are unfit for 
pastures and permanent meadows, but which are made 
to produce heavy crops of roots, fodder corn, clover, or- 
chard grass, millet, mixed j)eas and oats, and other kinds 
of fodder ; and which, by the aid of the practice of ensi- 
lage, are made to support, in many cases, one cow or 
more to each acre the year round. In some localities, 
manure from the cities and special fertilizers are pro- 
cured to aid in keeping these light lands in the highest 
state of fertility; so that, on the whole, it maybe said 
that in choosing a dairy farm the experienced dairyman 
is not bound by any circumstances, but may safely take 
the best situation for his purpose, a favorable location 
being of the greatest concern to him. 

In general, however, the dairyman would safely choose 
a moderately level farm, well watered, having a some- 
what firm clay loam soil, lying in a compact shape, with 
a convenient spot near the center of it for his buildings, 
and as near to a railroad station as possible. If there is a 
permanent cool spring upon it, that would be a great ad- 
vantage ; and if the spring is located near the dwelling, 
and in a convenient place for the milk-house, it would 
be still better. 

Perhaps the plan of the author's farm, given at figure 
1, might be suggestive of what can be done in laying out 
a farm for a dairy, Avhich at first seemed to offer many 
disadvantages. The soil is a light sand and far from 
fertile naturally, but a swamp meadow contributed 
ample supplies of rich muck, and a railroad station a few 
miles only from New York City gave good facilities for 
procuring abundance of manure to aid in growing root 



i)AIRY FARMS. 



n 



and soiling crops. A public road ran along the front of 
the farm and another divided it into two nearly equal 
parts. By fencing in an open wood lot and seeding it 
down with mixed grasses, a shaded pasture, supplied with 
^ a permanent spring, was made for the exercise of the 
cows. A small pasture field was made by seeding with 
orchard grass and clover near the barnyard, and a gate 
on the road gave easy access to it. Another lot seeded 
to mixed grasses was made at the back of the barn, and a 
gate opened to it from the yard. A small grass lot was 



^>iir 



smlinq cropi 



•^ jCrajj/oZ-forcoy^ 



Cc^^Vot 



t^urd 






6 



' • * « 




Fig. 1.— PLAJSt OF A DAIRY FARM. 



kept for calves adjoining the calf pen. These lots were 
fenced, but the rest of the land was all thrown into two 
fields, which were cultivated for fodder and root crops. 
A brook supplied the calf lot and one grass lot with 
water ; a spring and a small run supplied the woods pas- 
ture. A dwarf pear orchard near the house made a run 
for calves and poultry, of which a number of light 
Brahmas were kept for market chickens. The barnyard 
contained half an acre ; the barn, sheds, bull and calf 
pens, and stable, formed a right angle facing to the south. 



2^ THE DAIRYMAN^S MANUAL. 

The yard was surrounded with old shady cherry trees on 
the south side, and a hme gave an outlet in front of the 
yard to tlie road. A gate opened from the yard into 
the road, opposite the lane leading to the woods pasture. 
A spring near the house gave an opportunity for making 
la convenient milk-house with a cool deep pool for setting 
[deep pails, and an apartment for churning, and storing 
butter, pails, etc. The dairy-house was in a grass plot 
upon which calves were occasionally tethered, and this 
was shaded by apple trees. Access from the house to the 
barn and to the milk-house was open and unobstructed 
with any obstacle, excepting the small hand gates through 
the two yards — a second yard being enclosed in front of 
the cow yard ; it contained the horse stable and the 
poultry house. 

This plan was gradually grown up to by various addi- 
tions which were made as the farm, at first exceedingly 
poor, was brought into better condition. The farm w^as 
not designedly purchased, but came into the hands of the 
author by accident. It was almost hopelessly barren, 
but the land was located near a village and had some ex- 
trinsic value on that account. It was taken in hand for 
the purpose of an experiment designed to prove if it were 
possible to make a poor farm fertile in such a way as to 
pay for the improvement, and by what means this im- 
provement could be made most easily and rapidly. The 
author's previous experience in dairying led him to choose 
this as the most effective means for arriving at the de- 
sired end. Previously one cow only was kept on the farm. 
This number was at once increased to fifteen, and a milk 
dairy was established. The food was wholly purchased, 
and an attempt was made to make the cows pay all 
the expenses from the milk, and so supply the badly 
needed manure for the improvement of the farm. Clover, 
roots, corn, and fodder corn were at first grown by the 
help of artificial fertilizers. The attempt was wholly 



DAIRY MEMS. ^3 

successful. The income from a milk route, the milk 
being sold at six cents a quart, more than paid expenses, 
lea\ing a large quantity of manure, increased in amount 
by liberal additions of swamp muck, to go upon the land. 
The surplus earnings were spent in procuring pure bred 
Jersey and Ayrshire stock, and the business was changed 
to the making of butter instead of selling the milk, 
which provided means for rearing valuable calves. All 
this work was a labor of love, and gave excellent facilities 
for the study of dairying, and a great many experiments, 
numerous investigations — chemical and microscopical — 
into the nature and behavior under varied circumstances 
of milk, butter and cheese, and observations were made 
upon the habits and disposition of the cows and calves, 
and the values of feeding stuffs used, all being taken 
from the practical standpoint of the actual work in the 
dairy. 

That a farm of this uninyiting kind could be used for 
a dairy farm, and brought up to a fair degree of fertil- 
ity in a few years, will serve as a reply to numberless 
inquiries constantly being made as to the possibility of 
doing this — making the dairy pay expenses from the first, 
though all the food and most of the fodder be pur- 
chased. The fact shown is quite pertinent to the subject 
of this chapter, although it may seem to be somewhat of 
a digression from it, as tending to prove that a person 
with some experience, and of a cautious, patient, perse- 
vering and economical disposition, may have an exceed- 
ingly wide choice in the selection of a dairy farm, so 
long as it may have fitness in some respect for the pur- 
pose designed. For a novice, however, a choice of this 
kind would almost certainly be disastrous, unless he felt 
that he was all that a dairyman should be, and con- 
formed fully in this respect to the qualifications described 
in the previous chapter; and, moreover, unless he began 
in a small way, feeling his path as he went along, and 



M THE DAIRYMAlsr's MAKtJAL. 

learned as he went to profit by any probable mistakes lie 
might make. 

In concluding these remarks upon the choice of a 
farm for the purpose of dairying, some especial reference 
' should be made to a greatly neglected portion of the 
country, which offers unusual facilities for enterprise in 
this direction. This is that region, blessed with a most 
favorable climate and abundance of cheap land, in the 
midst of good markets for the produce, commonly called 
*Hhe South.'* From Virginia southward to the Gulf of 
Mexico stretches a country which has been for a century 
given up to the exhaustive culture of tobacco and cotton, 
and which has procured its principal food supplies, and 
all its butter and cheese, from the North and West. 
Yet no other part of the United States is better adapted 
for the growth of feeding crops, and for the keeping of 
cows for dairy purposes; while its mild winter climate 
renders it most especially fitted for winter dairying and 
the production of fine butter at a season when the 
northern part of the country is buried under snow or 
frozen solid with the intense cold. In the very center of 
the Southern States is the southern mountain region, 
where the excessive heat of the South in the summer 
and the intense cold and the snows of the North are 
both unknown. It is an elevated, undulating plateau 
averaging in hight 2,500 feet above sea level, and in 
some localities reaching 3,700 feet to the base of the still 
higher mountains which rear their tops from 5,000 to 
6,500 feet above the level of the sea. The whole region 
produces all the grasses, corn, wheat, clover, roots, and 
every kind of fodder crop, to perfection. It is abun- 
dantly watered with innumerable streams and springs of 
the purest water ; the air is pure ; mosquitoes and other 
noxious insects are unknown. Cattle can find subsist- 
ence m the forest ranges tlie whole year, thus affording 
a specially favorable climate for open pasturage during 



DAIEY FARMS. 25 

the winter, when the cultivated grasses are grown for 
feeding dairy cows. The highest temperature of the 
summer rarely reaches eighty degrees, and then only for 
a few hours in the middle of the day, while the nights 
are always cool; the lowest temperature of winter is from 
ten above to eight degrees below zero, and. this occurs only 
very rarely at night and during a few hours, for at 
noon following the warm sun will melt the snow and ice 
formed in the night, and make the air agreeably warm. 
Snow rarely lies on the ground more than three or four 
days, and an exceptional fall of snow may be three or 
four inches deep, and will begin to melt off as soon as 
the clouds clear away. Everything invites the dairyman 
to this pleasant and healthful locality. Cheap land, rich 
soil, natural herbage, a most favorable climate, and a 
central position as regards all the large cities and towns, 
and the cotton fields, in the Southern States, to which the 
supply of butter and cheese is brought from the Northern 
markets. Florida, with its large floating winter popu- 
lation, is twenty-four hours only from the region, and 
affords a most profitable market for fine butter, an 
article unknown in the Southern cities, excepting as a 
few pioneer dairymen in the mountain country are be- 
ginning to supply the active demand for it, and the 
market is practically unlimited. 

A few words of encouragement might also be given to 
the family dairy, where one cow is kept for the domestic 
supply of milk and butter. In such a case the farm may 
be a plot of one acre or more in the suburbs of a large 
city, or town, or village ; and the pleasure and profit 
of having such a small dairy farm tempts thousands of 
people from the close streets of a city to the broader and 
sweeter lanes of the suburban vicinity. This work is 
intended to meet the wants and desires of this large class 
of dairies, and to encourage more of them, by showing 
how the work is to be managed, and also how a cow may 



%Q THE DA1RYMA>J*S MANUAL. 

bo kopt- with profit \\\Hm i\n acre of land iimlor cultiva- 
tion, and tlio clippings of a lawn, with the aid of the 
snrplus vegotablos from the gardon. This is entirely 
possible, and it has been done for several years by the 
anthor at his residence, a few miles distant from Ins 
farm, wliere a family cow, chosen fn>m the herd for its 
docility and prodnctiveness, has been kept to sujiply the 
needs of (be family. And in choosing a rural residence 
tbe prospective owner shonld be careful to consider the 
possibilities of his little farm for this desirable purpose. 



CHAPTER III. 
COWS FOR THE DAIRY. 

On"E notable source of ill-success in dairying is infe- 
rior cows. It is said that even in the oldest ami best 
dairy districts of New York, one-tbird of the dairy stock 
will not more than pay the cost of its keep. This is not 
to the credit of good dairymen, and shows they do not 
give pro])er attention to their account of protit and loss. 
Poor milk-yielding cows are **a crying evil," anil the 
annual loss from this canse keeps many dairynuMi in 
straitened circumstances ; and so long as they persist 
in retaining this kind of stock there is for them but little 
hope of bettering their fortunes in the dairy. 

Inferior milkers are not wholly conlined to the scrubs 
and common cows of the country, for they are found 
amoni;- all breeds of thoroui^bbred stock. Prof. Koberts, 
in a recent, address at a dairy convention. atVuMued that 
much of the thoronghbred stock of the country is a jiosi- 
tive damage in the dairy. Weak in constitution, with 
the milking habit bred out. they transmit these charac- 
teristics to their progeny, and thus become the source of 
inlluito mischief and loss to the dairyman who is trying 



cows FOR THE DAIRY. 



27 



j-,fni!im 



3 



2 
O 

QD 

o 

n 
o 

as 

Q 

O 




28 THE BAIRYMAK'S MAKUAL. 

to improve his herd by introducing pedigree blood. 
Every inferior cow when found out, he said, should have 
its head cut off, and not be turned away indiscriminately 
to . cheat and cause loss to other dairymen. No matter 
how renowned its pedigree, let it go to the shambles or 
to the beef producer, but not to the dairyman. Harris 
Lewis facetiously urged at the same convention, that any 
dairyman having a poor milker would make money by 
giving her away, and if he had scruples in this regard, 
^'he might make a present of the beast to his mother-in- 
law." 

Some years ago one of the best dairymen in Herkimer 
County, New York, desiring to ascertain the profit he 
was realizing from different cows in his herd, instituted a 
series of tests. He had found from actual experiment 
that the average cost of keeping his dairy stock through 
the year was at the rate of thirty-five dollars per head, 
and this sum was embraced under the following items: 

Two and a half tons of hay at eight dollars per ton. .$20 00 

Pastm-age during the season.. 7 50 

Two hundi-ed pounds ground feed in spring 8 00 

Interest on cost of cow at forty -five dollars, and de- 
preciation, ten per cent 4 50 

Making, per cow, a total of... $35 00 

Now selecting five of his best cows and five of his 
poorest cows, and measuring the quantity of milk on cer- 
tain days of the month during the season, he found that 
the five best cows yielded five hundred and fifty-four gal- 
lons of milk each, which realized, in butter and cheese 
sold at market rates, an average for the season of eleven 
and a half cents per gallon, or a total of sixty-three dollars 
and eleven cents per cow. This gave him, after deduct- 
ing cost of keep, twenty- eight dollars and seven ty-ono 
cents per cow, clear profit. 

On the other hand, the five poorest cows yielded only 



cows FOR THE DAIRY. 29 

two hundred and forty-three gallons of milk each, which 
at eleven and a half cents per gallon amounted to twenty- 
seven dollars and ninety-live cents each, or seven dollars 
and six cents less than the cost of keep. As a result of 
this test, it is needless to say the poor cows were not kept 
over the second season. If this result was obtained by . 
one of the best dairymen, what could be expected from 
the herd of the average dairyman ? 

There are cheese dairymen who are keeping dairies 
averaging from twenty-five to thirty cows, who obtain, 
one year with another, a yield of six hundred pounds of 
cheese per cow and often more, while other dairies in the 
vicinity do not get a yield of much more tlian half that 
amount per cow. It must be evident that herds like the 
latter are not rapidly bettering the fortunes of their own- 
ers. And yet this thing goes on from year to year with- 
out the proper effort to get out of the rut. 

The statistics of the cheese factories in the State of 
New York show many infei'ior herds that do not yield 
on an average much above three thousand five hundred 
pounds of milk per head during the year, whereas the 
average should be at least five thousand pounds. The . 
milk of every cow should be tested as to quantity and 
quality, and inferior cows discarded. It is better to pay 
a good round price for a superior milker than to take a 
poor one at any price, since the cost of keep on the latter 
will most likely insure loss. There are instruments which 
will determine quickly and easily the percentage of butter 
in any sample of milk, and with sufiicient accuracy for 
all practical purposes, so that by weighing the milk, from 
time to time, the real value of a cow as a milk producer 
may be known ; and such tests are imperative if the best 
results in dairying are to be obtained. 

Dairymen should breed their own stock as the surest 
way to get superior milkers at moderate cost ; but in 
breeding dairy stock care should be taken that calves be 



30 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

raised only from deep milkers, and it is quite as important 
that the sire should be of a deep milking family as the 
dam. 

The choice of stock is so large that there is danger of 
the dairyman being bewildered in the great variety, and 
of finding difficulty in making a selection of any one pure 
breed for the improvement of his herd. 

The Native Cow — ^so called — is necessarily the basis 
upon which the dairyman must form his herd, and for- 
tunately this stock is good enough, not only for the 
purpose of being crossed by pure bred bulls of different 
breeds for special uses, but for careful selection and im- 
provement within itself. It has, since the first settle- 
ment of America, been reared from imported cows, which, 
there is reason to believe, were the best of their kind, 
and the progeny of these have been crossed again and 
again with bulls of every kind, until the native cow has a 
mixed blood the origin of which is impossible to distin- 
guish. The preponderance of blood is clearly the Short- 
horn, or, as it was formerly called, the Durham, w^hich was 
imported systematically seventy years ago, and has been 
largely intermixed with the native stock in many localities, 
chiefly in New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio. 
In New England the preponderance of blood is Devon 
and Ayrshire, these lighter cattle being better fitted for 
the rougher and less luxuriant pastures of the East. 
These three breeds seem to be chiefly mingled in the 
native stock, and if a most careful selection had been 
made, with a set purpose to get useful cows, no better 
choice could have been made. Occasionally may be seen 
the white face and brick-red color of the Hereford, and 
more recently the Jersey and the North Holland (or, as 
it is now called, Holstein-Friesian) breeds have become 
largely intermixed with the native stock. But it is wrong 
to suppose that a mixture of many excellent breeds will 
produce a race of cattle combining all the good qualities 



cows FOR THE DAIRY. 



31 



CO 




32 THE datkymak's manual. 

of the progenitors. Unfortunately, the contrary is the 
case, and all the bad qualities are more likely to be per- 
petuated. Trying to improve the native race within 
itself is usually unsatisfactory and a slow process, the 
better way being to select the best of the cows and cross 
them with a well-chosen pure bred bull of a suitable 
kind, either for milk, cheese, or butter. It is a matter 
of considerable importance for the dairyman to select 
the right breed for his purpose. 

The Shorthorn Breed is, perhaps, the most valu- 
able of all those used in dairying. If there is any one 
breed which may claim to be the most suitable for gen- 
eral purposes, as for milk, cheese and butter, and beef, 
when no longer jorofi table for these, it is the Shorthorn. 
Half-bred or grade Shorthorn cows are more largely 
kept for milk dairies and for cheese making than any 
others, because they are good milkers and fatten quickly 
when dry, and then make good beeves, usually bringing 
for slaughter as much as, or more than, the original cost. 
This breed originated in the north of England about 
one hundred years ago, and was then noted for the excel- 
lence of its cows ; the best of them producing as much 
as twenty- four pounds of butter per week and forty 
quarts of milk daily. It is claimed that the breed came 
first from Denmark, Holland, and the north of France, 
where it laid the foundation of the highly productive 
herds of various races in those localities. At the present 
time, however, with the exception of a few families 
noted for productiveness of milk and butter, this breed 
has greatly deteriorated in this respect, having been bred 
for beef, and the milking character having been neg- 
lected. The engraving, figure 2, gives an excellent 
and accurate portrait of a cow of this breed, which 
won the champion prize for the best yield of milk 
two years in succession at tlie English Dairy Farmers' 
Association. She is not sufficiently pure bred for entry 



cows FOR THE DAIRY. 33 

in the Herd-book, but shows very well the special pecu- 
liarities of form of the pure Shorthorn in its best condi- 
tion as a dairy animal. Her product at the exhibition 
was fifty-one pounds and twelve ounces of milk, which 
contained 3.26 per "cent of fat, equal to a product of 
about one pound and twelve ounces of butter daily. 

The Ayrshire Breed deserves the next place as 
a valuable dairy cow, not because it is the largest milker, 
but is a very profitable cow for both milk and butter, 
and is adapted to a large range of locality and varying 
circumstances. This breed originated in the southwest 
part of Scotland, in the rich vale of Ayr, and has a large 
infusion of the same European blood in it which was 
bred into the Shorthorns. It dates back for more than 
a century, and is the basis upon which the noted 
dairy business of Ayrshire, or the Dunlop district, famous 
for its excellent cheese and butter, has been built 
during a hundred years. It has been greatly improved 
by careful selection, and is now a model dairy cow. 
Without depreciating any other breed of cows, she may 
easily take this position. She will not displace the 
Jersey in the fine butter dairy, nor the Dutch cow in the 
milk dairy ; but she will fill the place of both of these 
in the cheese dairy, and while she will not compare with 
the latter in amount of milk product, she will greatly 
surpass the former. She is the farmer's cow. Her milk 
makes a superior cheese, and, being rich in cream, it can 
easily be turned to profitable butter production. Her 
average milk product will amount to at least 5,000 
pounds a year, and some of the best cows will yield 
from 6,000 to 8,000 pounds between two calvings. She 
is easily kept ; she is a good and hearty feeder ; she is 
remarkably hardy ; her cont is thick and close and warm 
enough to resist exposure to the most severe w^inter 
storms, and it can sustain the great heats of even the 
-West Indies without discomfort. One of her good points 



34 THE dairyman's makual. 

is that she holds on to her milk production nearly 
up to the time of again calving, and although a cow may 
not be an excessively large milker in her first freshness, 
yet by a long-continued and well-sustained product the 
total average is eminently satisfactd\'y to the owner. An 
example of this may be given in. the cow Bolivia (in the 
herd of the author), a typical Ayrshire cow. The fol- 
lowing figures, taken from the record of her milking 
with her first calf, dropped when the dam was less than 
two years of age, give the daily product for the first, the 
fifteenth, and the last day of each month in a year, during 
which her whole product was a little more than 3,000 
quarts : — 

1st. 15th. 30th. 

1879, lbs. lbs. lbs. 

March - 33 31 30 

April 31 34 33 

May -- 39i 3U 30i 

June 3O5 30a 32? 

July 31 29i 29i 

August 29 28 26i " 

September 26 24 21 

October 21 20i 19j 

November --- 18 18 20i 

December. - .- 214 20 19i 

1880. 

January .- -- 20 19^ 19^ 

February 18 18? 17i 



Her second calf was dropped in April, 1880, and it 
was necessary to feed dry hay only, in very limited 
quantity, to dry her off before she began to spring again. 

The Ayrshire makes a very good cross upon any breed. 
With the native cow, the produce is nearly equal to and 
sometimes surpasses, in productive value, the pure breed; 
with the Shorthorn, the cross has made some noted 
cows, one especially having a record of one hundred 
pounds of milk in one day. The Ayrshire-Jersey cross 



cows FOE THE DAlfeY. 



35 



3 
4^ 



H 

ca 

> 

CI 




36 THE f)AIRYMAIsr'S MANUAL. 

makes a most valuable family cow, and has been bred for 
this purpose for many years ; one in the author's dairy 
has given twelve pounds of butter weekly regularly for 
twenty-two weeks after calving, and then gradually de- 
creased, until her product in the year was nearly four 
hundred pounds. Several cows of this cross have given . 
two pounds a day through the summer season, and have 
continued productive until within a few weeks of their 
next calving. 

The North Hollain^d — Holstein, Friesian, Dutch, 

and now called Holstein-Friesian as a compromise among 

the breeders — is the largest milker existing, whole herds 

having made a record of more than eighteen thousand 

pounds of milk in a year. These cattle are brought 

from Northern Holland, where they have been bred for 

dairy use during many years, and where the pastures are 

unsurpassed for luxuriance. A large number of these 

cattle have been imported of late years into the 

United States, and have become very populai*. They 

are black and wliite in color, of large size, handsome 

form, with deep, capacious udders ; but, as may be easily 

supposed, require very liberal feeding to enable them 

to make the large yield of milk and butter which many 

have done. The owners of herds of these cattle claim 

that they are superior to any otlier breed in regard to 

the product of milk and butter from an equivalent of 

food ; but as the friends of every other breed make the 

same claim, it is not necessary to burden these ])ages with 

the mass of figures which have been published to show 

the remarkably large yields of some of these cows. For 

the milk dairy they are certainly unsurpassed in point of 

yield ; and they are rapidly becoming popular for cheese 

and butter dairying. Not a small advantage of this breed 

is that it is of very large size, equaling the Shorthorn 

in this respect, and takes on flesh and fat easily, so that 

the steers make good beef, and the cows may be turned 



cows FOR THE DAIRY. 37 

off to beef without loss. This use, however, seems at 
present quite distaut, for the high price of tlie stock and 
its scarcity forbids it, and will do so for many years to 
come. 

The Jersey Breed has taken the most prominent 
position m the dairy during the past ten or twelve years. 
Previously it was the fashionable cow of the rich amateur 
farmer who could afford to pay hundreds of dollars for 
one of these elegant animals as an ornament to his lawn 
and well kept pasture, and for the supply of cream and 
butter for his domestic use. Gradually it became the 
fashion for these wealthy persons to establish fancy dai- 
ries, and to make the choicest quality of butter, which 
was put up in attractive forms, for sale to consumers who 
could well afford to pay a dollar per pound for a product 
whicli was certainly known to be clean, pure, and of the 
most perfect flavor and appearance. It was a new depart- 
ure in dairying, and has had a most beneficial influence 
in compelling the makers of butter to follow the example 
set in this way, or in inducing them to do so, in the hope 
of securing higher prices for their product. A wholly 
new business, commonly known as fancy butter making, 
has sprung up, and this has led to the extensive intro- 
duction of winter dairying and a large variety of im- 
proved apf)aratus. It is a new instance of the imjorove- 
ment in agricultural methods which has been brought 
about by the use of improved stock; and just as the Ayr- 
shire breed in Scotland, or the Dutch breed in Holland, 
induced a remark-able change for the better in the past- 
ures and in the culture of the soil, as well as in the farm 
buildings — and by reflection, as it were, in the farmers 
themselves — so the Jersey cow has revolutionized the but- 
ter dairy, and has improved it more in the past ten years 
than every other influence had done from the beginning 
up to that time. 

The Jersey cow, sometimes wrongly called Alderney, 



38 THE DAIRYMAiq^^S MANUAL. 

is native to the island of Jersey, the largest of the group 
known as the Channel Islands, which are situated near 
the coast of France, in the English Channel. These 
islands are Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark ; the 
last two being mere islets. The three first mentioned are 
each noted for a special breed of cattle, much alike in 
character, but yet sufficiently different to be distinct ; 
the chief characteristic in all of them being remarkable 
elegance in form and color, and exceeding richness of the 
milk. 

The island of Jersey, with a total area of about three 
hundred square miles, contains more cows than any 
other equally small part of the earth ; and they are 
more highly valued than those of any other breed, averag- 
ing probably $300 or $400 each. So many have been im- 
ported into the United States that there are more cows 
of the breed here now than there are in Jersey — viz., 
about 10,000 — while the half-breds or grades, which are 
almost as valuable as the pure breed, number perhaps 
100,000 or more; at least they are so numerous as to be 
seen on almost every well -managed butter dairy farm 
in the special dairy districts. 

Several State herd records are in process of establish- 
ment for the pure bred Jersey cattle, because the Ameri- 
can Jersey herd book is too cumbrous for convenience, 
from the large number of entries which have been made 
in it. No other cows in existence have been so highly 
cherished and cultivated as the Jerseys, and some of them 
have made the most extraordinary records as butter pro- 
ducers. The highest authorized record is that of Prin- 
cess 2d, owned by Mr. Shoemal^r, of Baltimore, Mary- 
land ; viz., forty-nine pounds of butter in seven days. 
Several cows are known to have produced from thirty 
pounds in a week down to twenty-four, twenty, eighteen, 
and sixteen pounds, and there are over a hundred cows 
which have a certified record of fourteen pounds weekly. 



cows FOE tHE DAIBY. 



39 




40 THE DAIEYMAN^S MANUAL. 

The cow Nellie, bred by the author, made 625 pounds of 
butter in twenty months between two calves, and from 
her first calf on December 27, 1879, to the end of her 
third milking season in December, 1883— that is, in ex- 
actly four years— she produced 1,649 pounds of butter, 
which was all sold at an average of fifty cents per pound, 
yielding the sum of I824..50 in the four years, besides 
rearing two heifer calves. Some remarks have been 
made derogatory to the high prices asked and paid for 
Jersey cows. This instance of the actual intrinsic value 
of a cow may be taken as a fair example of what a cow of 
this kind ought to be worth simply for the money value 
of her product. Any dairyman could well afford to pay 
$500 for such a cow, for her butter- making worth, 
leaving the value of her calves out of the .question. For 
the private dairy, where one cow is kept for the family 
supply of milk, cream, and butter, this fact is also worth 
thinking of, in case the owner has ample means for pro- 
curing the best animal for his purpose. The considera- 
tion is worthy of notice also by farmers who are inter- 
ested in improving their dairy stock ; for a good bull is 
worth as much more than a good coav, as the calves got by 
a bull are more numerous than the one calf of a cow in 
any one year. This remark is not applied solely to the 
Jersey breed, but to whatever breed may be supposed by 
a dairyman to be the best for his iHirpose. 

The Jersey cattle are of medium size, very graceful in 
figure, having slender limbs, a thin neck, a fine head 
with broad forehead, dished face, large black eyes, a 
gentle expression, and fine, small, curved horns, usually 
black in color, setting forward over the forehead. The 
fore-quarters are light, the abdomen deep and large, the 
hind-c[uarters large, the back broad, the thighs thin and 
set well apart, giving room for a broad udder, which has 
a loose skin hanging far up behind and giving great 
capacity for liolding milk ; the milk vein is large and 



cows FOR THE DAIRY. 41 

spreads well at its entrance into the front of the udder ; 
the teats are usually large^ and well and squarely placed 
on the udder ; the tail is long and slender, and the whole 
form partakes of a Avedge shape, and is well balanced and 
pleasing. This description may be taken as applying 
to any good cow, and when a yellow skin, fine coat, yel- 
low ears, and a. mellow soft feeling under the skin are 
"added, the whole indicate a cow which may be expected 
to excel both for milk and butter. 

The color of the Jerseys varies from a light fawn 
mixed with white in patches, to a darker yellowish fawn 
or a mouse color, with a black muzzle and an orange 
colored ring around it. The tongue is also black in 
many of them. When this is the case the eyes, horns, 
switch and hoofs are also black, making, with the tongue 
and muzzle, the ^^full black points," which are consid- 
ered by some Jersey breeders the sine qua non of an ex- 
cellent animal of this breed. The dairyman, or the 
owner of a family cow, will scarcely give much weight 
to these points except for appearance, and then only 
wdien accompanied by the best milking character. 

Much has been said about the escutcheon as being an 
indication of superior quality in cows. This may be 
considered as a fancy more than a reality, except when 
' it accompanies the hereditary marks which are trans- 
mitted from a cow or a bull to its calves, and is accom- 
panied by all the other inherited good qualities. A good 
cow, or a bull which is known to have sired good cows, 
which has a well-shaped escutcheon and transmits it to 
the calves, may be expected, along with it, to transmit to 
the progeny all the other good qualities. It is not safe 
to go further than this and depend wholly upon the es- 
cutcheon alone, as some have done, and do, for a certifi- 
cate of good character. The escutcheon is simply a re- 
versed growth of the hair from the udder and inside 
of the thighs up to the rump ; and sometimes this 



42 THE DAIRYMAK^S MANUAL. 

growth takes the form of curves and curls, where it 
meets the usual position of the hair. It is difficult to 
believe from any physiological connection that this 
growth of hair has any direct influence upon the milking 
quality, or this upon that, so as to be considered in any 
light further than as has been above suggested. 

The G-uerksey Cattle differ from the Jerseys chiefly 
in their color, which is dark yellow verging to reel, and 
their figure, which is coarser than that of the Jerseys. 
They are usually larger milkers and on the average more 
productive of butter than the Jerseys. They do not, 
however, possess any special qualities which make 
them more valuable in the dairy than the Jerseys, and 
there are comparatively few of them in America. For 
the family dairy, however, a Guernsey cow is doubtless 
the very best animal to be procured. 

The Alderj^ ey is a smaller animal than the Jersey, 
and is not at all suited for the business dairy. They are 
fawn-like in their build, and fawn and white iu color, and 
are small but very rich milkers. They are a distinct race 
and are sometimes confounded with the Jerseys, which 
are called Alderneys, but wrongly and unreasonably so. 
But for this confusion of names this breed, of which 
but few are in America, would not be worth notice here. 

The last three breeds mentioned, viz., the Jersey, 
Guernsey and Alderney, are natives of the group of small 
islands on the coast of France, but belonging to Great 
Britain, which have been previously referred to. These 
islands enjoy a remarkably even and pleasant climate, 
and a rich soil which is exceedingly well cultivated. 
The farms are very small, mere garden plots for the most 
part, and there are few pastures, properly speaking. 
The cows are tethered in the small fields, and are ac- 
customed to strict discipline and familiarity with their 
owners. Hence their disposition is naturally gentle and 
docile, and no other dairy cows are so easily reared and 



cows I'OK THE DAIRY. 



43 




44 !rHE dairyman's mai^ual. 

handled, more desirable for the private dairy, or the 
business dairy when butter is the object desired. 

The Dutch Belted or Blanketed Cattle are na- 
tives of Holland, having the black and white colors of 
the so called Holstein-Friesian breed, but curiously dis- 
posed, so that the white is distributed, not in patches, 
but in a broad belt around the middle of the body. These 
cows have been carefully bred by the wealthier Dutch 
people for more than a century. They have been kept in 
the Orange County, New York, dairies many years, where 
they have acquired a high local reputation as profitable 
cows for milk and for butter. They are also kept in 
considerable herds in Delaware and Pennsylvania, and 
are sufficiently numerous to have required a herd book 
for recording their pedigrees. These cattle are smaller 
than the largest North Holland (Holstein-Friesian), con- 
sume less food, and are more suitable for the average 
dairy farm where the pastures are not rich or luxuriant 
enough to support the larger and more exacting breed. 
But this smaller cow is considered as very desirable, 
where milk for sale is the point aimed at. 

The Swiss Cattle are noted for the dairy as good 
producers of milk, butter, and cheese. Switzerland is 
essentially a dairy country, and its pastures are of the 
greenest and the richest. Consequently its cows have 
been bred and cherished for many years with the greatest 
care. Pastures make cows, while the cows turn the 
pastures into rich products. Hence in such luxuriant 
pastures as those of Switzerland excellent cows may 
reasonably be expected. Their domestication is so com- 
plete that the disposition of Swiss cattle is docile, 
and gentleness is one of their marked characteristics. 
This again reacts upon the productive character, and 
thus the Swiss cows are very desirable dairy animals. 
Some of them were imported into Massachusetts a 
few years ago, and were found very well adapted 



cows FOR THE DAIRY. 45 

to our American climate. From Massachusetts they 
have spread into other States, and are now kept in suffi- 
cient numbers to gain a wide reputation for butter pro- 
duct. The average yield of a Swiss cow is 2,700 quarts in 
a year, but the milk is rich in "cream. The largest yield 
is from twenty-four to thirty quarts daily, and the pro- 
duct of butter varies from a pound to two pounds daily. 
These cows are brownish in color, of solid build, and 
make very good beef animals. The portrait given, fig- 
ure 6, is one of a cow of the Simmenthal breed, which 
is considered the best in Switzerland. 

The DEVOijr Breed is said to be the oldest pure race 
of domestic cattle in existence. This may be true, for 
no other breed reproduces itself so true to type and with 
such slight variations. The color of a pure Devon is a 
rich dark red, solid and without any mixture. The horns 
are long and fine, and on the whole this breed is espe- 
cially well and handsomely formed. As ^^ general pur- 
pose" cattle they are second only to the Shorthorn, being 
very fair dairy cows, giving an average yield of milk, 
and rich, high-colored and highly-flavored butter equal 
in quality to that of the Jersey cows. The oxen are the 
best for the yoke, being active, docile, sagacious, easily 
trained, and of good size. The Devon beef is considered 
the best of all kinds, being tender, sweet, and well mar- 
bled witli fat. For the purpose of the farm dairy these 
cows will probably be more suitable than any other kind; 
but for special dairy purposes, where the most butter 
from the least feed is required, the Devons will rank 
lower than the best. A pure Devon cow five years old, 
in the author's dairy, gave eight pounds of the best qual- 
ity of butter weekly for three months, when the yield 
fell off quite rapidly; at the same time Jerseys and Ayr- 
shires were giving ten pounds weekly and only fell off 
slowly, keeping up a profitable yield for fully eight 
months in the vear. These yields, however, were from 



46 THE DA.IKYMAN'S MAITUAL. 

well selected animals, fed as highly as they could safely 
bear. 

The Polled Norfolk is a red cow mnch like the 
Deyon in appearance, but having no horns. For some 
J very good reasons horns are not desirable in the dairy, 
and their absence from the cows is a point in their favor 
which goes a long way to make up for any deficiencies. 
But the Norfolk cows are said to be excellent dairy 
animals. There are several herds of them in America. 
Most of them have sprung from recent importations from 
England, where they are highly valued for milk and 
beef. They are certainly no better than the Devons in 
the dairy, if as good; but the absence of horns goes some 
way to balance the deficiency. While this breed is men- 
tioned, it is more for the purpose of avoiding any charge 
of prejudice ^against a breed of useful cattle which are 
considered by those who keep them quite valuable for tlie 
dairy, than to class them on a par with the special dairy 
breeds previously described. If a dairyman wants a 
herd of cows which are without horns, he can find such 
cows among the polled Norfolks. 

While considering this matter of horns, it might be 
said that there are many weighty reasons to be urged in 
favor of hornless cattle. Horns are oUensive weapons 
•■ of tlie most dangerous character, and may be suddenly 
turned against an unwary owner as quickly as against 
other cattle in the herd. Numerous distressing acci- 
dents occur every year in this way, and very great dam- 
age results to cows, calves, and other animals from the 
pugnacity of cows and bulls who use these most injurious 
and often fatal Aveapons offensively in every sense of the 
term, and never defensively, as nature intended, but 
which are not required under domestication. Then the 
question arises, how can the cattle be deprived of these 
offensive and threatening horns without injury, damage, 
or inconvenience ? A horn has a bony center, which is a 



cows FOR THE DAIRY. 



47 







48 THE DATRYMAN^'S MAKUAL. 

part of the skull, a prolongation of the frontal process, 
protected by the smooth covering known as the horn. In 
a young animal, a calf of a month, the horn is unformed, 
and becomes developed slowly, beginning to grow out- 
wardly at the age of six to eight weeks. At this time 
it first appears upon the surface as a horny plate, which 
is not attached to the skull, but is a growth from the 
skin, with which it is identical in composition. If this 
horny plate be cut loose from the skin and removed, and 
the wound be touched for an instant with the point of a 
hot iron, the embryo horn is at once destroyed and no 
further growth takes place. If, then, it is desirable to 
have hornless cattle, there is no necessity to select, any 
inferior animals simply because they are devoid of iiorns, 
but to rear the best calves and dishorn them when it can 
be done easily and painlessly; the operation being very 
simple, and free from all but a momentary pain which is 
by no means intense. The operation of emasculation, 
which is considered necessary, but no more so than that 
of dishorning, is greatly more painful and the pain is 
much longer continued. 

These dishorned animals, bred together, soon produce 
hornless progeny, which in the course of time inherit 
the polled heads. If the horn must go, in the march of 
improvement and in the interests of humanity, by all 
means let it be effected in this easy and humane manner. 
No doubt the valuable product of any herd of dairy cows 
would be increased at least ten per cent annually, and the 
cattle could be managed with much less trouble and 
annoyance, if the animals were devoid of the cruel horns. 

The list of the recognized pure bred dairy breeds is by 
general consent of leading dairymen confined to four 
only, viz., Holstein-Friesians, Ayrshires, Jerseys, and 
Guernseys. While these are certainly the most noted and 
valuable cattle for the dairy, it is equally true that if the 
dairy business of the world were confined to these four 



cows FOR THE DAIRYc 



49 




' fm 

il fit! 

llt}l;f'' 



50 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

breeds, butter and cheese would be very scarce commodi- 
ties, and worth at least five dollars per pound, until the 
slow increase of these pure bred cattle suj)plied the gen- 
eral demand. Of the 11,000,000 cows in the United 
States, there are not more than 100,000 cows of these pure 
breeds. The 10,900,000 left are the natives, so much 
despised by the breeders of the herd-book stocks. They 
are the foundation and material of the grand structure 
of our dairy industr}^, and supply the public demand for 
dairy products, the pure breeds are the gilding and orna- 
mentation of the sfcructure. It is important then that 
dairymen and farmers should give their most careful and 
untiring efforts to the improvement of what is known 
as our native stock — to which it is the fashion of some 
thoughtless breeders and writers to apply the offensive, 
opprobrious, and wholly undeserved name of " scrubs" — 
and to add to their productive value by skillful selection, 
judicious breeding, liberal feeding, and the exercise of the 
most considerate care and rearing. In future chapters 
this part of the business of the dairyman will be as fully 
considered as space will admit. 



CHAPTER IV. 

BREEDING AND REARING DAIRY COWS. 

The cows are the dairyman's machines for changing 
food into more salable and valuable products. As ma- 
chines are valuable in proi^ortion to the effective work 
they perform, so cows are to be valued for the amount of 
milk and butter they can produce from a certain quantity 
of food. The cow which yields half a pound of butter 
daily is worth no more than half as much as one that 
produces one pound per day, and in fact less than that^ 



BREEDI^TG AND REARING DAIRY COWS. 51 

because Awhile two such cows have to be fed for the same 
equivalent of product, and the cost of the butter is thus 
doubled, there is twice as much labor spent in gather- 
ing this pound from the two cows. All this is clear to 
the commonest understanding, but it is necessary to em- 
phasize the trite statement to show the great importance 
of the home breeding and rearing of the cows kept in a 
working dairy. It is not possible to purchase the best 
cows; the owners know their value and will not sell them 
except at high prices which the dairyman cannot aiford 
to pay. He must, therefore, rear his own herd, and make 
it so valuable that it will repay all the care and cost ex- 
pended upon it. 

The art of breeding is governed by a few rules, which 
are simple and easy to understand. 

The first and most important of these is, that '^like 
produces like," by which is meant that animals of certain 
peculiarities of form, color, disposition, habit, and qual- 
ity, when bred together, reproduce their own cliaracteris- 
tics in their progeny. This rule has been so uniformly 
and constantly proved by practice, and is so reasonable 
and natural, that it may be taken as a safe guide in the 
rearing of dairy cows. Every person may see it proved 
by practice every day of his life. There is more or less 
.of family likeness in persons as well as in the lower ani- 
mals. The progeny of a Jersey cow is always a Jersey, 
and the same is true of all other breeds. A good rich 
milker produces calves that are good milkers, and that 
bear a close resemblance to herself in all valuable points. 
It is the fashion to assert that only pure breeds have this 
physiological power of propagating their own characteris- 
tics. This is nothing more than a claim made "without 
sufiicient reason by the breeders of these cattle, for the 
purpose of raising the market value of their stock ; a 
legitimate way, perhaps, of doing business as it is now 
4oue, All animals possess this power to some degree, 



52 THE dairyman's manual. 

and by a careful course of selection this natural procliv- 
ity may be encouraged, developed, and strengthened, 
until the breed, as it is then called, has this power in an 
eminent degree, and the progeny partakes very closely of 
the character of the parents. This is the point to be 
aimed at by dairymen, who should first learn by careful 
tests which are their best cows ; then feed them liberally 
to develop their qualities to the fullest extent ; breed 
them to males of known hereditary excellence ; and pur- 
sue the same plan with their progeny. The male should 
be selected from some pure breed, not at haphazard, but 
after careful investigation of its antecedents, and espe- 
cially of its parentage. Milking quality is the only point 
to be considered, for this alone brings the profit desired. 
A dairyman should look to his special business for 
his profit, and never be induced to compete with pro- 
fessional breeders in the rearing of stock for sale. 
Hundreds of dairymen have been misled into disastrous 
losses, during the progress of what might be called the 
Jersey speculation of the last seven or eight years, by 
purchasing at high prices animals belonging to certain 
families which were popular at the time, but whose 
popularity was soon eclipsed by new favorites. Specu- 
lation of this kind cannot fail to bring losses upon a 
dairyman who gives it precedence over his legitimate 
business. 

It matters not what breed is chosen. If it is the Short- 
horn, or the Holstein-Friesian, for the production of 
milk or for cheese, or the Jersey, Guernsey or Ayrshire 
for butter, as good a bull as can be afforded should be 
secured. As a rule a calf should be purchased, and this 
may be safely done if the pedigree is right, and the milk- 
ing quality of his dam and both granddams has been 
found satisfactory. It is more profitable to pay a large 
price for a good animal than a small price for a poor one. 
The bull is half the herd as regards the calves, and more 



BREEDING AKD EEARIKG DAIRY COWS. 53 

than that when it is procured for the purpose of improv- 
ing native stock. The spare male calves may be easily 
disposed of to neighbors who are not so particular, or 
are less experienced in this respect, for some advance on 
the value of the common stock, that will in good part re- 
pay the cost of the sire. 

Breed is undoubtedly dependent upon feed. Feeding 
and training have given the value to the breed, and this 
value must be kept up by feeding and training. The 
mistake is often made of getting a pure bred animal and 
subjecting it to all the careless management which is 
-given to the common stock, and expecting that this ani- 
mal, by virtue of its parents' character, can lift up the 
common herd and double or treble its value in a few 
years. Such a hope is doomed to disappointment from 
the outset. When a pure animal is brought into a herd 
its care should be at least equal to that which it has been 
used to, and the very same system of feeding and general 
management should be followed with the whole herd. 
If this practice is followed, success will be sure, and the 
desired end will be reached. 

A bull over a year old may serve ten or twelve cows in . 
the season ; the next year twenty or twenty-five services 
will not overtax his powers ; but overwork is to be avoid- 
ed. It is better to ask a fee of five dollars per cow for 
outside service, and admit two or four cows, than take 
one dollar each for ten or twenty. A service is usually 
valued at what it costs, and is more thought of at five 
dollars than it would be at one or two dollars. The 
owner of the cow will be apt to take more care of the 
calf, and value it more, if it costs him five dollars, and 
the higher fee will be of service to him in this respect, 
and he will get good value for it in more ways than 
one. My way of managing a bull has turned out con- 
venient, safe, and satisfactory. A pen and yard adjoin- 
ing the cow stable and barnyard were provided for 



6i THE DAIKYMAJT^S MAKtJAL. 

him, and he was kept in it, not having the freedom of 
the barnyard at any time, except when driven to the 
water-trough while the yard was empty, and he was at 
once returned to his own j^ard. It is a good practice 
to employ the bull at light work, which keeps him docik% 
and makes him more certainly nseful. A one-horse 
tread-power may be provided, in which he may work a 
fodder cutter, or, if no work is to be done, may take 
exercise. If a harness is provided, the bull may be trained 
to work in a cart, and draw fodder from the fields to the 
stable, or remove manure, or do other useful service. 

When his attention is required by any cow, this animal 
is led to the bnll's yard with the halter on its head, and 
is tied in a corner specially provided with a strong ring. 
The bull is then let out of the stall and left with the 
cow. The bull's yard is closed in with a tight board fence 
eight feet high, but a slide opening is made in it, through 
which the animals can be observed. When the service 
has been effected, the bull is driven into his stall and 
shut up, and the cow is taken to a separate pen with a 
loose stall, provided for the purpose, and is kept there 
until she recovers her usual condition, when she is re- 
turned to the stable. This avoids considerable annoyance 
and is a security for the effectiveness of the service. 

A bull is never to be depended upon, and should never 
be approached by any person, not even his keeper, unless 
he be armed with a stout, sharp rawhide. A bull should 
be kept in constant subjection, and when at all slow in 
obeying an order the rawhide should be administered 
sharply and swiftly, but never cruelly. As a sharp re- 
minder of pains and penalties to come, a cut with the 
rawhide will always be effective in securing prompt 
obedience. This cautious and safe training and disci- 
pline should never be relaxed, or a life may be lost or 
serious injury be done at a moment's warning. It is 
always dangerous to pet a bull, and although he may 



BUEEDTKG AK]> HEARlJ^TO DAIRY COWS. 65 

haye cost liis owner 1500 he should never be permitted 
the least freedom on that account. 

The cow once safely in calf shouki be fed ia accordance 
with the new demands upon her system. The method 
of feeding will be found particularly described in the 
chapter devoted to the feeding of cows, and it would be 
desirablie to follow the directions there given as closely as 
may be convenient. The calf j)artakes of the disposition 
of the dam, and if the cow has any special failing or fault 
this should be averted by the most careful treatment, 
and every effort made to insure a docile and gentle dis- 
position in the coming calf. 

Liberal feeding should be a paramount rule, for as it 
has been the means of building up the breed it cannot 
be dispensed with in the progeny. The food supplied 
should be of a nutritious kind, and while it is given 
without stint it should never be given in excess. Ex- 
cess of food has a directly opposite result from that which 
is intended, and is one of the frequent mistakes in rear- 
ing calves which should be carefully avoided. By de- 
veloping the character of the calf through liberal feed- 
ing, and gentle and kind treatment, a capacity for 
digesting large quantities of most nutritious food, and 
such a disposition as renders the animal easily subject 
to necessary discipline, are secured, and in time become 
characteristics which will be inherited. 

The proper development of the milk organs is a point 
which must not be neglected. The young animal should 
be bred early, to give a precocious- habit to the race. At 
two years old the first calf may be dropped ; but an 
interval of at least eight or nine months should elapse 
before she is bred again. This tends to give persistence 
in the secretion of milk, and lengthens the period of 
profitable milk production, upon which the value of a 
cow very much depends. The second calf then comes at 
three and a half years of age, when the young cow is well 



56 . THE DATRYMAN^S MANUAL. 

developed, and is able to give a large product of milk and 
butter. 

It is advisable that tlie calf should be taken from the 
cow very soon after it is dropped and removed to a pen 
provided for the purpose. In the plan of the farm given 
in Chapter II. there are shown two of these pens, each 
of which is divided into four stalls separated by parti- 
tions four feet high, of upright bars three inches apart. 
This secures ample ventilation and gives the calves com- 
panionship, which keeps them from fretting. The cow 
is removed to a ropmy box-stall nine by seven feet, at the 
extreme end of the stable, away from the calf pens, a few 
days before her time expires, and is kept tiiere four days 
after the calf is dropped, when the milk is fit for use. Six 
liours after the calf is taken away the cow is milked and 
the milk is at once given to the calf. This method tends 
to make the cows naturally oblivious of their calves, and 
avoids the trouble, so common m dairies, of cows hold- 
ing up their milk. It also makes the calf docile and 
attached to its keeper, and enables it to be trained with 
much ease. After a few years of this kind of manage- 
ment the cows will evince no disturbance at the loss of 
their calves, and will come into the dairy at the right 
time without any difficulty. The calves are made more 
gentle, and the habit soon becomes confirmed and 
hereditary. 

In the selection of a cow for breeding the following 
points should be considered. A model useful dairy cow 
may be known at a glance by an expert. She has a fine 
long head, broad between the eyes, and a thin wide 
muzzle ; the eyes are large and of a mild expression ; the 
neck is thin and long ; the ears are thin and covered 
inside with a deep yellow skin ; the fore-quarters are 
light and thin, and the whole body has much of the 
shape of a wedge, increasing in size to the rear ; the legs 
are chin, with fine bone ; the belly is large and deep, with 



BREEDING AKD EEARIi^G DAIRY COWS. 67 

large capacity for food ; the back is broad and straight, 
and the ribs are well rounded towards the rear ; the bones 
of the rump are wide apart ; the tail is long and thin ; 
the thighs are thin, and are set widely apart ; the udder 
iis large and full, especially behind; the teats are of good 
size and set wide apart upon a broad level udder, and the 
milk vein — so called — which is the large vein leading from 
the udder and passing into the abdomen, and which is an 
indication of the amount of blood circulating through the 
milk glands and contributing to the milk secretion, should 
be full and tortuous in its short course. ' A fine horn, a 
deep yellow skin, and a general elegance of form, with- 
out any heaviness or beefiness in any part, are also impor- 
tant indications of good quality in a cow for the dairy. 

The bull should have the special characteristics of 
the cow, differing, however, in development as becomes 
a male animal. The form of the head and body ; the 
large, mild eye ; the fine, clear, waxy horn ; the yellow 
lining of the ears ; the yellow skin, and the general light- 
ness and elegance of form, all go to indicate a good 
animal for the dairy. 

A good calf should be of slender build, long and thin 
in the body, with a long head and limbs, a bright, large 
eye, thin ears, fine thin skin, and smooth hair, without 
any noticeable brisket. The teats should be placed 
widely apart, and the undeveloped udder should be loose 
and skinny. 

Many breeders place great weight -upon the form of 
the escutcheon, or the hair which grows upwards on the 
back part of the thighs and udder. A well -shaped 
escutcheon can do no harm, but there are numerous 
excellent cows which have no escutcheon to speak of, 
and the business dairyman may very well afford to 
ignore it. 

The portrait of the Jersey bull Pedro (figure 5), and 
that of the Holstein-Friesian cow Netherland Queen 



5§ THE dairyman's manual. 

(figure 4), give an excellent idea of what the typical form 
of a dairy bull and cow should be. Tliat of the Ayrshire 
cow Flora (figure 3) is excellent, except in one respect, 
viz., the rather short teats, which are common in this 
breed. 

The breeding periods of the cow occur at intervals of 
twenty to twenty-one days, and usually begin at the age 
of twelve to fourteen nionihs; some Jersey calves (this 
breed is naturally precocious) have bred at the age of 
seven months or even earlier. Fleming, in his excellent 
work on Veterinary Obstretrics, states that seventy -nine 
per cent of cows are fertile and twenty-one per cent 
sterile. My own observations certainly differ from this 
author, for of twenty-eight herds, including my own, 
with which I have been intimately acquainted, and in 
which were altogether nearly 500 cows, there were but 
three cases of absolute sterility. 

The cow carries its foBtus about 280 days, or nine months; 
the period of pregnancy, however, varies in cases from 
240 to 301 days. Of 1,062 cases noted at a French agri- 
cultural school 15 calved in 241 days ; 52 from 241 to 
270 days ; 119 from 271 to 280 days ; 544 from 271 to 300 
days ; 230 from 281 to 290 days ; 70 from 290 to 300 
days ; 32 went beyond 301 days. The longest known 
period is from 330 to 353 days. The averages given by 
many observers are 283, 280, 2807,, 284, 282 for female 
and 288 for male calves ; and all these coincide in the 
belief that a male calf is carried several days longer than 
a female. 

The cow rarely has multiple births ; but occasionally 
twins, and even more, are produced. Twin births seem 
to be hereditary, and it is believed by some prominent 
veterinary practitioners that this peculiarity may easily 
be made habitual by a course of selection in breeding. 
Cases are cited in which the progeny of multiple bearing 
cows have produced twins, and in one case seven calves 



CHOPS FOR DAIRt FARMS. ^d 

were borne by one cow within twelve months, and six of 
them survived. This cow had twenty-five calves at eight 
births, one producing six, but none of them lived. 

Accidents of birth are rare among cows which are well 
cared for and kept in good condition. In nearly ever 
case of mal-presentation and difficult parturition, the 
cause has been traced to chasing by dogs, injury by other 
caws, or some violent accident. Extreme care should be 
taken to avoid such accidents, which are all preventable. 

In the case of twin births, the popular belief that 
twins of opposite sexes are sexually imperfect is supported 
by observation and facts. But when the twins are both of 
one sex they are normally perfect in this respect. When 
a male and female calf are twinned, the female is almost 
always imperfectly formed and will not breed. Such 
females are popularly known as free martins and may be 
considered worthless for breeding. 



CHAPTER V. 

CROPS FOR DAIRY FARMS. 

The feeding of the stock is of paramount importance 
in the dairy, and a suitable selection of crops for feeding 
is one of tlie subjects which require careful study. Some 
crops are more productive than others, and are conse- 
quently more pro li table. As a rule the dairyman should 
aim to grow fodder and not grain, purchasing the grain 
and other concentrated foods with the proceeds of the 
larger crops of fodder grown. Fodder cannot be pur- 
chased, it is too bulky for carriage, and no farmer has 
any surplus of it to spare ; but grain-feeding substances 
can be often purchased more cheaply than they can be 
grown. Hence it is that the question of crops for fodder 
becomes of great importance to the dairyman. 



60 THE DAlRYMAI^^S MAK^AL. 

Grass is fclie first crop to be considered; but it is so im- 
portant in its several uses, and there are so many valuable 
kinds of it, that a special chapter should be devoted to it. 

Fodder Corn follovrs grass in rank as a feeding crop, 
either green for summer use, or preserved as ensilage, or 
dried and cured for winter use. It is one of the most 
productive and nutritious plants when properly grown 
and cultivated. It has yielded from twenty-four to forty 
tons of green, and five to eight tons of cured fodder. It 
requires rich land and good cultivation, however, to make 
this yield ; but on poor land helped by artificial fertilizers 
a very profitable yield can be made. In such a case a 
poor sandy farm which was badly run down produced, 
with 600 pounds of special corn manure to the acre, 
twenty-four tons of Evergreen sweet corn and twelve tons 
of Early Narragansett sweet corn per acre. It is quite pos- 
sible to grow botii of these crops on the same ground the 
same season ; for the early corn will be ready for cutting 
in fifty days from plantmg, and the later kind planted 
in July will mature in September, thus giving thirty- 
six tons of green fodder, or eight tons of cured fodder, 
per acre. It is this rapid growth which makes the crop 
so valuable. 

Fodder corn has acquired a bad reputation by reason 
of the mistaken manner of growing it; viz., by broad- 
casting the seed at the rate of two or three bushels per 
acre, by which the crop is so crowded that it makes a 
pale, watery, rank forage, quite devoid of nutriment and 
worth but little more than wood shavings. Cows have 
been knowm to reject fodder thus grown, which is a con- 
vincing proof of their natural sagacity. 

When grown in rows three feet apart, and with four to 
six seeds dropped eighteen inches apart, the fodder is 
entirely different. It is green in color, mature in its 
growth, full of sweetness, and a large proportion of the 
stalks will have ears in what is known as the roastin'^ 



CROPS FOR DAIRY FARMS. 61 

stage, and as the fodder is cured these may be dried, 
if the proper precautions are taken in the curiug. The 
author has taken over 10,000 ears of sweet corn fit for 
market per acre from a crop of Evergreen sweet, and this 
product, gathered and sold from farms near large cities, 
is exceedingly valuable, frequently selling for $1.50 per 
100 ears, and if late in the season, and of good size, for 
nearly or quite twice as much. Thus this crop is a 
very useful one for dairymen who are near a market 
for this kind of truck. 

The crop is cultivated precisely as field corn is. At 
the proper time, which is when the ears are in the 
milk, the corn is cut close to the ground in the usual 
manner and left for two or three days to dry. It is then 
bound in small sheaves of about twenty stalks in each, 
with bands of rye straw, then set up in small shocks 
and bound securely at the top, the bottom being spread 
to admit the air. It is thus left until the stalks are 
quite dry and the ears shrunken, when it is put up in 
small stacks of about 1,000 bundles or less, built around 
a frame made like three ladders meeting at the top and 
spreading at the bottom, by which air is admitted into 
the center of the stack and mildew is prevented. When 
fed green the stalks are cut up in a fodder cutter with 
the ears, and make a most valuable food for the cows. 
They are very productive of milk of good quality. Sweet 
corn ears in the cooking stage make excellent food for 
butter-making cows, and the butter is of fine flavor and 
quality. 

In growing the second crop the land is plowed as fast 
as the first one is removed, the swivel plow being the 
most convenient implement, and is harrowed and planted 
as soon as a space wide enough to start on is ready. The 
Acme harrow prepares the plowed ground very quickly 
and perfectly, and the Albany corn planter drops and 
covers the seed, and marks the rows, at one operation, 



62 THE dairyman's manual. 

Thus no time is lost and the crop comes in rapidly. As 
soon as the seed is planted the fertilizer should be sown 
over the surface and left for the first rain to carry it into 
the soil. 

Clover is the next crop in value to be considered 
after fodder corn. This has the advantage that it may 
stay in the ground two, three, five or more years, as it 
may be rightly managed. On good land clover is a per- 
ennial, while on poor land it dies out the third year and 
is thus a biennial. The most profitable kind is the com- 
mon red clover ; the annual crimson clover (Trifolium 
incarnatum) is useful m some sections, but only for green 
fodder. It matures and ripens its seed the first year. 
At the South it is sown in autumn and cut the following 
spring. 

Clover may be sown alone or with some grain crop, 
or with turnips. It can be sown in April on well pre- 
pared ground and make pasture or a cutting in the fall, 
or it may be sown then with oats, or in July with buck- 
wheat, or in the same month alone or with turnips. But 
this crop will not succeed upon poor land, and it is a 
waste of time and seed to try it. Fodder corn will do 
better in such a case. But clover may be grown upon 
well manured or liberally fertilized soil, well plowed and 
thoroughly harrowed, with 500 or 600 pounds of super- 
phosphate per acre and 300 pounds of plaster. One peck 
of seed should be sown to the acre. 

When it is sown with orchard grass it becomes more 
useful, and the two together yield three times as much 
fodder or hay as the clover alone. If cut for hay, it 
should be mown when in full blossom and before a head 
has turned brown. It is then in its most nutritious 
stage. The author's practice is to begin cutting as soon 
as the deAV has dried off, and cut up to three or four in 
the afternoon. The clover is then gathered with the 
horse rake into large windrows, wherQ it is left until the 



CROPS FOR DAIRY FARMS. 63 

following day. As soon as this is done, cutting is re- 
sumed until sundown. The next morning cutting be- 
gins again as before, and the windrows are gathered into 
cocks holding about 300 pounds each, which will make 
them about four feet in diameter and six feet high. 
The cocks are covered with hay caps made of brown 
sheeting fifty-four inches square, and fastened down, at 
the corners by long thin wooden pins thrust into the hay. 
The hay is thus safe against the weather until the whole 
crop is cut and put up in the same manner. It is then 
taken to the barn or barracks. The cocks are thrown 
open and aired for an hour, then loaded and put into the 
mow and trampled down firmly. It will sweat and heat 
a little, but this improves the quality of the hay and 
increases its digestibility. 

When there is plenty of straw, clover may be cured 
in an easy manner by taking it up as it is cut and 
packing it in a tight mow, in alternate layers of about 
a foot in thickness, with dry straw. The clover heats 
slightly, and impregnates the straw with its sweet flavor 
and odor, thus making the straAV more palatable, so that 
both can be fed together. 

There are several other excellent feeding crops which 
may be made available for dairy farming, but as these 
will be referred to in Chapter VII., under the head of 
" Soiling," no further mention need be made of them 
here. 

Millet is a valuable crop for hay as winter feed. It 
is sown in June or July, and is fit to cut in six weeks. 
Half a bushel of seed is sown per acre, and the crop is 
cut when in early blossom, or it becomes hard and un- 
palatable. 

Root Crops are the main dependence of the dairyman 
for winter feeding, and are indispensable for complete 
and profitable success in the business. Winter dairymg 
Qannot be carried on without a good supply of roots, 



64 THE dairymaid's manual. 

The roots mostly grown for the purpose are mangels, 
sugar beets, carrots, and parsnips. The method of cul- 
ture is the same for each. 

The soil for roots mu§t be rich. A corn stubble lib- 
erally manured in the fall, and plowed so as to cover 
the manure in even layers intermingled with the soil,- and 
lying at an angle of forty-five degrees, and so remaining 
during the winter, then cross-plowed and thoroughly 
harrowed in the spring, is the best preparation for a crop 
of roots. The manure becomes thoroughly incorporated 
with the soil and decomposed, and affords excellent food 
for the roots. The land is plowed early in May, and im- 
mediately harrowed deeply to make it mellow and fine. 
The seed for mangels and sugar beets, four to six pounds 
per acre, according to its freshness and reliability, is sown 
by a hand drill m rows twenty-seven inches apart. 
The drill leaves a roller mark over the seed by which the 
rows can easily be seen. As soon as the seed is sown, 
600 pounds of salt and 300 pounds of the best superphos- 
phate per acre are sown evenly over the surface. The 
horse hoe is started in the spaces between the rows a 
week after the seed is sown, the roller marks serving 
as guides. When the plants are up in the rows a gar- 
den hand cultivator is run across the rows, with the cut- 
ters set to ten inches in width. This is run back and 
forth, leaving four-inch spaces between the cultivated , 
rows in which the plants are left. A great deal* of hand 
hoeing is thus saved, and the hand cultivator may be used 
as frequently as the horse hoe is, to mellow the soil be- 
tween the plants, and to prevent weeds in these spaces. 
The cost of the crop is reduced one-half by this method 
of cultivation. 

When the crop covers the ground and the leaves meet 
in the rows cultivation ceases. When fully grown the 
roots are harvested as follows. A man with a sharp, 
heavy hoe goes along one row and clips off at a stroke 



CROPS FOR- DAIRY FARMS. 65 

the leaves from the roots on his right hand. It is easier 
to do this when the man walks backwards. At the end 
of the roY/ he turns and retraces his steps in the same 
row, thus gathering the tops of two rows in one. An- 
other man follows, and with a digging fork turns the 
roots out into the empty space on his left or right hand, 
as the case may be, gathering two rows of roots into one 
space. There are thus alternate rows of roots and tops. 
It is most conyenient for the roots to be thrown in heaps 
between the rows, leaving spaces wide enough for the 
passage of a horse and cart, in which they are lifted with. 
a broad blunt fork, with tines bent somewhat, to hold 
the roots. 

The tops are gathered and put in heaps in a convenient 
place, covered with straw and then with a little earth, in 
which manner they may be kept fresh for several weeks, 
and will afford excellent fodder. The roots are put up 
in conical heaps in trenches two feet deep and four feet 
wide, covered with straw and then with earth, thus keep- 
ing in perfect condition until June of the next year. 
Care is to be taken to avoid heatmg, by putting ventila- 
tors in the top of the heaj^s to afford an escape for the 
heated and damp air which gathers in the pits from the 
sweating of the roots ; round drain tiles, or bundles of 
smooth straight straw, make excellent ventilators. 

Carrots and parsnips are more difficult to grow tlian 
beets and mangels, but with care they will yield a heavy 
crop of most valuable fodder for winter feeding. Of 
mangels the best kinds are the long red and the yellow 
globe ; of sugar beets, Lane's improved, grown by Hon. 
Henry Lane of West Cornwall, Vermont ; of carrots, the 
long orange, the Belgian and Altringham are most 
suitable for field cult. ire ; of parsnips there is but one 
kind. Parsnips may be left in the ground all the win- 
ter with safety, and thus a large part of them need not 
be harvested in the fall. Turnips of all kinds are unfit 



66 THE dairyman's MAI^UAL. 

for use in the dairy except for dry cows, young cattle, 
and bulls, and as they are inferior to the roots men- 
tioned, no further notice will be given them. 



CHAPTER VI. 
GRASSES FOR PASTURES AND MEADOWS. 

Grass is the most important crop for the dairyman. 
In the great majority of cases pasturing must be the 
main dependence for the summer feeding, and the 
meadow furnishes the hay for winter. Consequently, 
the method of culture of grass should be well under- 
stood. As a rule the sowing of grass of various kinds 
is made with some grain crop, and usually in the fall 
with wheat or rye. This method, however, is not just 
to the grass, nor is it favorable for the best results to the 
seeding. The so-called foster crop very often robs the 
grass and exhausts the soil of its needed nutriment, and a 
very poor catch is the result. If the soil is thoroughly 
well prepared by manuring and sufficient tillage, the two 
crops may grow together very well, and the grass make 
a JTood stand. But this is seldom the case, except with a 
fevr good farmers who need no advice or suggestion upon 
the subject. The great majority of farmers need to study 
this subject and understand the requirements of the grass 
for its successful culture. 

The preparation of the soil should be very thorough. 
The land should bo plowed deeply, and a liberal coat of 
manure turned under, not buried, but with the furrows 
laid over at an angle of forty-five degrees, so that the 
manure lies between the layers of soil standing on edge in 
a sloping manner. The harrow, run along the furrows, 
works the soil and manure together, mixing them and 



GRASSES FOR PASTURES AKD MEADOWS. 67 

making them fine and compact. The harrowing should 
be continued until the whole surface is as smooth as a 
garden, and the soil is quite fine. If the iand is clayey 
and lumpy, it should be rolled between the harrowings. 

Sowing the seed alone is preferable. If any grain crop 
at liU is used, it should be oats in the spring, or buck- 
wheat early in July, as may be most convenient. Excel- 
lent seeding has been made earl^ in August with a pound 
of turnip seed to the acre. This shelters the young grass 
during the winter ; and d}dng, the turnips decay in the 
spring, and afford a most useful fertilizer for the crop. 
Timothy and clover, orchard grass and clover, or 
the three kinds mixed, and orchard grass alone, have 
been sown in all of these three ways with better results 
than when sown with fall grain and subjected to the 
risks of the winter weather. 

In sowing grass and clover seed an even stand is de- 
sirable, and, to secure this, great care is to be taken in 
the sowing. A very good practice is to make the last 
harrowing with great care, evenly, and with the marks 
all parallel. Then the sower can follow these marks, 
first taking the edge of the field and returning six short 
paces distant from the first course ; then returning on 
the second course, and always sowing with the right 
hand to the left. Six feet for each cast is as much as 
can be taken with light seed — as orchard grass, blue 
grass, red-top, etc. — and as much as should be taken 
with timothy. The quantity of seed taken may be 
readily gauged to the width of the cast. The cast is 
made with each movement of the right foot. When 
the wind is blowing, even sHghtly, the casts should be 
made low to avoid irregular dropping of the seed, and 
when the light seeds are soAvn it is easier to walk across 
the harrow marks, when the tracks made are easily seen ; 
and as the wind may carry the seed to one side, the 
sower may go out of the straight track to accammodate 



68 THE DAIKYMAN S MAKUAL. 

the wind, and on returning can easily distinguish the 
foot marks of the previous track m the soft soil. 

A broadcast seeder is a convenient implement which 
costs but little, and can be carried by the sower with ease. 
It drops the seed low, and if the sower goes face to the 
wind at the start the seed is not spread unevenly. When, 
in spite of all care, an irregular seeding is anticipated, it 
is well to sow half the seed one way, and cross the sowing 
the other way, when vacant spaces may be covered. An 
inexperienced sower should practice on the snow, using 
sand, which can be easily seen on the white surface, and 
in two or three attempts he will be able to make the 
sowing quite evenly. The sowing should be done as 
soon as the last harrowing is finished, when the seed 
sinks in the loose soil or is covered by the first shower. 
A smoothing plank is a good thing to cover seed with. 
It may be eight or ten feet long, and is provided with a 
tongue and two stiff braces. The tongue is fitted to the 
plank on the level, so that when it is raised the front end 
of the plank is elevated a little. This prevents the plank 
from gathering stones or sods m front of it, and causes 
it to ride over them. It leaves a smooth even surface. 
Rolling the land after sowing is sometimes useful and 
advisable, but is so often injurious that it may be dis- 
pensed with quite generally. 

Few American farmers know how many varieties of 
grass and foliage plants are in use in agriculture. Timo- 
thy and red-top, with red clover, are the first and the 
last and the whole list in common use upon the majority 
of farms. Orchard grass is sometimes sown by a few of 
the most progressive farmers, and blue grass, tall oat 
grass, and meadow fescue are occasionally used in a small 
way in some localities where they are not indigenous, 
but grow almost spontaneously. Yet really the kinds of 
grasses available for farm culture in permanent meadows 
are quite numerous. An English seedsman's catalogue 



GRASSES FOR PASTURES AKD MEADOWS. 69 

enumerates considerably ov^r 100 varieties, the seeds of 
which, he offers for sale in regular trade, and all these 
are grown more or less by the English farmers, either 
for annual fodder crops, for intermediate rotation, or for 
permanent pastures and meadows. Included in this list 
there are three species of agrostis, four of avena, five of 
bromus, eleven of clover, ten of fescue, three of loiium, 
seven of poa, three of oat grass, and fourteen different 
forage plants for mixture in pastures. 

We here refer to some of these grasses which, from our 
own knowledge or actual tests, we have found useful and 
available for meadows and pastures and upon various 
soils, and which we believe are indispensable for the use 
of American dairymen. The leading seedsmen are offer- 
ing various mixtures to meet the demand which has 
arisen. It is not, however, to the best interests of 
farmers to take whatever selection is offered to them. It 
is better that they should select for themselves, with 
a knowledge of their own soil and climate, and of the 
grasses they would wish. .The following grasses are 
the most valuable for cultivation under the conditions 
and for the purposes mentioned : 

Agrostis stolonifera, or white bent, is the most valua- 
ble of all the grasses of the genus to which the well 
known red-top belongs. It is often called Rhode Island 
bent, and in the South fiorin. Its creeping root gives it 
a permanent hold upon suitable soil, which is damp and 
rich loam, and it is therefore valuable for pastures. It 
has an early and late growth, and is exceedingly produc- 
tive, having yielded on a rich reclaimed swamp as much 
as 17,600 pounds of green grass or 7,740 pounds of hay 
from one acre, cut at the time of blossoming. When the 
seed was ripe the produce of uncured herbage was 19,050 
pounds per acre. The yield is still heavier when sown in 
reasonable proportion with other grasses. 

Agrostis vulgaris, or the common red-top, is well 



70 THE DAIRYMA:sr'S MAKUAL. 

known as a useful grass on low, moist lands, and as light 
and useless upon dry, poor uplands. It has a creeping 
root, and is a good grass for pasture upon reclaimed 
swamp lands. 

Poa serotina, fowl meadow grass, is a most valuable 
grass for moist soils. It has a fibrous, creeping root, an 
early growth, and renews itself quickly after cutting or 
pasturing. It is eagerly eaten by cattle, and patches of 
it in a meadow will be eaten closely while red-top is left 
untouched. It is very productive, and we have had it 
four feet tall, with broad, abundant foliage, upon a rich, 
reclaimed, peaty, moist meadow. 

Phleum pratense, or timothy, is too well known to 
need any description. Its bulbous root is unfavorable 
for long-continued growth, and it is not a suitable grass 
for permanent pastures or meadows, although it is the 
best of all kinds as an intermediate crop for hay. 

Avena elatior, or Arrlienatlierum avenaceum, the tall 
oat grass or evergreen grass of the Western States, is a 
most valuable kind for permanent meadows and for woods 
or shaded pastures. It is very early and productive, 
rather coarse but nutritious, and has produced over three 
tons of hay to the acre when grown alone, but like its 
relative, Avena flavescenSy the yellow oat grass, it succeeds 
better in company with other grasses. These grasses are 
suitable for all kinds of soil, but do their best in moist, 
rich clay loams. 

Alopecurus pratensiSj or meadow foxtail, is one of the 
best meadow and pasture grasses. The root leaves grow 
rapidly after having been eaten down, and it makes a 
dense matted herbage. It is one of the best of grasses 
for damp, rich lands and irrigated meadows, and has a 
luxuriant growth, almost equal to timothy in value on 
rich soil. It blossoms in May and is thus mature for 
cutting along with orchard grass. Over 12,000 pounds 
per acre of green fodder has been produced by this 



(JEASSES FOR PASTURES AN"D MEADOWS. 71 

variety, the hay from which amounted to more than 
three tons, with 2,500 pounds of second growth hay. 
Like timothy, this grass is most nutritious when the 
seed is ripe. 

Cynosurus cristatus, crested dog's tail, is a yery close 
growing grass and makes a dense sod ; it does well upon 
all kinds of soils, and especially upon irrigated or moist, 
drained meadows. For lawns it is one of the most 
valuable of all the thick-growing fine-leaved kinds. It 
is not very productive, but its late growth, being in 
blossom in June and July, makes it valuable as affording 
a succession of feed after the earlier kinds have been 
cropped. It is strictly a pasture grass, and has many of 
the valuable qualities of the Kentucky blue grass for 
this purpose. 

Dactylis glomerata, the well known orchard grass, is 
without exception the most valuable hay and pasture 
grass for sowing alone. We have grown it upon good 
sandy loam soil at the rate of 16,000 pounds per acre of 
green herbage, and have seen it growing upon moist, low, 
rich soil at least twice as dense as this, in appearance. 
In England it has been known to yield nearly 28,000 of 
green grass and 11,800 pounds of hay pei- acre, with 
12,000 pounds of green aftermath. It thrives on all 
kinds of soil, but does best in rich lowlands. We know 
a field still as productive as at first, which was sown\ 
thirty years ago, and has produced hay and afforded full 
pasture every year since, but has been liberally top 
dressed every second year. The hay, cut when in blos- 
som at the end of May, is sweet and palatable to horses 
and cattle, and for cows there is no better pasture than 
this in the aftermath. It does well under shade, and, 
as its name implies, grows well in orchards and wood 
lots. Its habit of growth, which is stool ing and tufty, 
is the only objection to it when grown alone, but when 
sown with other kinds the vacant spaces are filled. 



72 THE dairyman's manual. 

Festuca elat'ior, tall fescue, grows naturally upon river 
banks and moist places, and is suitable for reclaimed or 
irrigated meadows. It is exceedingly productive and 
has been reported to have yielded upon an English 
''water meadow^' over 50,000 pounds of green grass 
a-nd 17,800 pounds of hay per acre, with a second growth 
one-third as large. It is an early grass and does well 
when sown alone or in mixture. 

Festuca pratensis, meadow fescue or English blue 
grass, is natural in that country to moist, low alluvial 
meadows, where it forms a large proportion of the herb- 
age, and is the most productive pasture and hay grass 
where it is grown largely in Kentucky. It is equal in 
every respect to rye grass, without any of its defects. It 
is found growing spontaneously in many parts of the 
Eastern and Middle States, and forms a large proportion 
of the ordinary meadow grass and roadside herbage. It 
is of strong growth and robust habit, but never grows 
in tufts ; is strictly perennial ; lasts as long as orchard 
grass, and is an excellent kind to sow with this grass. 
In Kentucky it is considered next in value to the famed 
blue grass. 

Poa pratensis, the blue grass of Kentucky, is the 
finest permanent pasture grass existing. Some of the 
meadows of Kentucky have been in j^^^^sture from the 
first settlement of the State and are still as good or bet- 
ter than at first. Its value is shown by the magnificent 
cattle and horses reared upon these old meadows. It 
succeeds over a large territory, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, 
Kansas, Tennessee, and the eastern and southern moun- 
tain region, notably in Southwestern Virginia. It does 
not succeed as well in ihe North and East ; nevertheless, 
the famed dairy localities of Central lS]"ew York, Ver- 
mont, and Western Pennsylvania owe their reputation 
to this grass. 

Other valuable grasses for permanent meadows are: 



GRASSES FOR PASTURES AKD MEADOWS. 73 

rye grass, a Tarioty known as Pacey's rye grass and 
perennial rye grass being the most valuable ; Poa iiemo' 
rails, or woods meadow grass ; Poa aquatina, or water 
sweet meadow grass ; Poa, or Glyceria fluitans, or 
floating meadow grass ; Poa trivialis, or roiigli stalked 
meadow grass ; Milium effiisum, Festuca rubra, Festuca 
duriuscula. All have valuable qualities for permanent 
meadows, either dry, moist, or irrigated. 

The following table will be found useful in selecting 
grasses for experiment, and for reference in regard to 
the kind of grasses most suitable for different soils, the 
time of flowering, the yield of fodder and hay per acre, 
and the quantity of seed sown per acre alone and in 
mixtute. 

TABLE OF GRASSES FOR PERMANENT SOWIl^G. 

FOR WET OR IRRIGATED LAND. 

Time Say, 

of Yield 

Variety. Bloom. Alone. 

lb. 

Anthoxanthum odoratum -June 1,000 

Agi-ostis stolonifera July .4,000 

Poa aquatiea July ...... . .6,000 

Poa trivialis. June 1,000 

Poa fluitans May 4,000 

Agrostis vulgaris .June - 4,000 

Lolium Italicum July 1,500 

MOIST AND RICH SOILS. 

Alopecurus pratensis May 3,000 

"A vena flavescens .June 2,000 

*Dactylis glomerata May .6,000 

*Festuca pratensis June 4,000 

*Lolium perenne July 1,500 

*Poa pratensis .June 

Agrostis stolonifera July 5,000 

Festuca elatior. June- 6,000 

Phleum pratense -July 6,000 

DRY RICH SOILS. 

Arrhenatheram avenaceum June 4,000 

Cynosunis cristatus - -June 500 

Festuca duriuscula June - - 3,000 

and those above marked witli a ■"" 



Seed, 
Yield 
Alone. 


Seed, per 
Acre. 
Mixture 
5). 

1 


24 


5 




10 




4 




5 


24 


5 


30 


10 




5 




10 


24 


10 


24 


6 




5 


24 


10 


24 


5 


24 


6 


10 


3 


20 


5 




5 




6 



74 THE DATKYMAN's MAIsTUAL. 

TABLE OF GRASSES FOR PERMANENT QOWING.—Continuecl. 

DRY, GBAVELLT, SAND SOILS. 

Time of Hay, Y'ld Seed, Y'ld Seed,per 

Vatiety. Bloom. Alone. Alone. Acre, Mix. 

R. S). a. 

Dactylis glomerata May .4,000 30 15 

Lolium perenne July 1,500 30 10 

Poapratensis June 30 10 

Festuca rubra June 1,000 .. 5 

tKoeleria cristata June -- 4 

Festuca ovina June.. .- 5 

WOODS, PASTURES, AND ORCHARDS. 

Arrhenathenim avenaceum 30 10 

Dactylis glomerata 30 15 

Milium efEusum June 10 5 

Poapratensis -- 24 10 

Poa nemoralis June 20 5 

Agrostis vulgaris -June .. 10 

Where figures are not placed this indicates that the 
variety referred to is not used in the way mentioned. 
It is not intended that all the varieties mentioned should 
be sown ; if this is desired the quantities of the grasses 
maturing at the same time should be reduced one-half. 
The full allowance, however, is desirable of the kinds 
which mature early. The large quantity of seed men- 
tioned is necessary for mixed sowing, because one kind 
follows the other, and a full growth of each is desirable. 

The character of these grasses in regard to the nutri- 
ment contained varies considerably; it varies also with 
the fertility of the soil, the grasses grown upon fertile 
and suitable soils being far more nutritious than those 
upon poor land. The following table gives the quantity 
of nutriment contained in the best quality of these and 
some other grasses. For the sake of convenience and 
comparison the analyses of some other feeding plants are 
also given. 

t This grass resists extreme droughts. 



ORASSES FOR PASTURES AND MEADOWS. 



75 



Nutritive Elements Contained Per Cent in the Following 



AIR DRY PLANTS. 



Common Vetch.. 

Japan Clover 

Red Clover in full bloom 

Red Clover in early blossom... 

Red Clover aftermath.. 

Red Clover in seed 

Alfalfa before bloom ! 

Alfalfa full bloom j 

Peas, dry substance 1 

Narrow-leaf Plantain - | 

Crow-foot Grass, Eleusine Indica 

Bermuda Grass 

Crab Grass 

Bainy'd grass Panicum crus-galli 

Fowl-Meadow Grass 

Wire Grass, Foacompressa 

Quack Grass 

Kentucky Blue Grass 

Red-top, early blossom... 

Timothy, young - 

Timothy, early blossom 

Timothy, seed ripe 

Orchard Grass, young 

Orchard Grass, early bloom 

Sweet Vernal Grass 

Rye Grass. 

White Clover 

Salt Marsh Grass 

Hungarian Grass. 

green fodder plants. 

Good pasture. 

Fodder Corn 

Green leaves of trees 

Oat Fodder... 

Pea Fodder 

Corn Ensilage 

Clover Ensilage. 

Mangels 

Sugar Beets 

Carrots .-. 

Parsnips 

Sweet Potato 



78.20 

84.00 

61.1 

81.0 

81.5 

83.5 

79.2 

88.0 

81.5 

85.0 

88.3 

69.7 



^ 



2.20 

1.00 

4.00 

1.4 

1.5 

1.1 

2.1 

0.8 

0.7 

0.9 

0.7 

1.1 



4.53 
3.76 
4.38 
5.25 
3.72 
3.65 
3.95 
2.63 
2.52 
3.82 
1.83 
1.83 
2.42 
1.84 
2.95 
2.43 
3.02 
2.45 
3.38 
4.20 
3.63 
3.20 
3.88 
3.03 
4.55 
2.18 
3.50 
2.45 
2.20 



1.0 
0.5 
1.5 
0.5 
0.6 
0.9 
2.2 
0.1 
0.1 
0.2 
0.2 
0.3 






!■" 



35.36 
44.82 
47.42 
42.30 
41.78 
49.90 
41.40 
47.&4 
65.98 
47.52 
29.15 
46.06 
36.59 
46.44 
49.00 
56.40 
48.22 
44.96 
50.84 
50.05 
54.01 
47.09 
47.94 
50.32 
49.96 
48.72 
33.90 
41.30 
38.50 



10.10 

8.4 

15.2 

8.3 

7.6 

8.9 

6.4 

9.1 

15.4 

10.8 

10.2 

26.3 



^ 



13.06 
23.32 
14.55 
11.85 
13.10 
17.55 
17.85 
20.78 
7.58 
18.82 
26.58 
20.16 
27.50 
24.78 
21.73 
17.87 
16.63 
23.94 
20.20 
18.35 
21.43 
22.48 
17.68 
23.78 
19.80 
19.25 
25.60 
31.90 
29.40 



4.0 
4.7 
13.0 
6.5 
5.6 
5.3 
5.9 
0.9 
1.3 
1.7 
1.0 
1.7 



-« 



25.14 

12.92 

17.50 

23.10 

24.85 

14.00 

19.60 

15.75 

19.91 

9.12 

11.65 

9.16 

8.38 

6.66 

7.56 

5.37 

9.84 

9.89 

11.88 

11.55 

9.63 

11.38 

15.05 

8.92 

12.44 

13.65 

14.50 

6.10 

10.80 



4.5 
1.4 
5.2 
2.3 
3.2 
1.2 
4.2 
1.1 
1.0 
1.4 
1.6 
1.9 



The above table is most interesting and important. It 
needs perhaps a few words of explanation. The valu- 
able nutritive parts of the various substances mentioned 



76 THE DA^IKYMAK'S MANtTAL. 

are the fat, carbo-hydrates, fiber and albuminoids. The 
fat, it IS believed, is absorbed directly from the digested 
food and passes into the circulation, and consequently 
into the milk of cows. This is a most important fact to 
remember. The carbo-hydrates consist of starch, sugar, 
and gum, and are all composed of carbon and "water 
combined, These furnish the carbon required for the 
maintenance of the vital heat, and to some extent may 
furnish material for the development of fat in the won- 
derful chemical changes of the animal digestion and nu- 
trition. The fiber consists of cellular tissue or woody 
substance, but a large part of this is digestible, and is 
changed in the animal system into heat and fat. This 
is unquestionable, for the beaver, which is one of the 
fattest of animals, lives almost wholly upon the bark and 
young wood of trees. The albuminoids are perhaps the 
most interesting of all these substances. Vegetable al- 
bumen, fibrin and legumin are all of precisely the same 
chemical composition, as will be more fully shown in a 
succeeding chapter ; and it has been thought probable by 
some competent physiologists, that these substances, of 
which the albuminoids of the food are composed, are 
converted directly in the animal system into the fibrin of 
blood and flesh, and the caserne of milk. Thus the foods 
which contain a large proportion of digestible albumi- 
noids must be of the highest value to the dairyman, and 
hence it is of great interest to know which of the grasses 
are the best for use m the dairy, and in w^hat condition 
they are taken for food. A study of the above table is 
therefore of much interest and use to those who are con- 
cerned in the dairy business. 

It should not be passed without calling special notice 
to the fact, that grass in its early stage of growth is 
much more nutritious than at any after period. Good 
pasture, it is seen, contains m its fresh state four and 
a half per cent of matter which nearly all goes to make 



GKASSES FOR PASTURES AKD MEADOWS. 77 

up the chief solid substance of milk, viz., the caseine, and 
also the large proportion of one per cent of fat which 
goes to furnish the cream of the milk. Hence it is that 
fresh youag pasture in early June — the '' Queen month " 
of the year, when the meadows are in all the glory of 
their fresh and tender verdure — produces the most and the 
finest butter of any season. The dairyman then should' 
take pains to provide a succession of such tender and 
nutritious feeding, by growing a succession of grasses in 
his fields which will afford the needed aliment for the 
best and largest product from his cows. 

The same remark applies equally to the grasses grown 
for hay, and in making hay the dairyman should be 
guided by the knowledge conveyed in this regard by the 
figures above given. The making of hay is then a sub- 
ject to be well studied from this point of view. It is not 
simply a mechanical operation — the mere cutting and 
drying of the grass — but a chemical one, in which the 
character of the grass is changed. Grass contains a 
small proportion of fiber as compared with the other car- 
bonacpous matter ; but the reverse is true of hay. The 
carbonaceous elements of grass consist of woody fiber, 
starch, gum and sugar. These consist of carbon and 
water, and hence, as has been said, are called carbo-hy- 
drates. These substances, which appear to any ordinary 
person so unlike in character, are really identical to 
the chemist, as they are all composed of precisely the 
same quantities and proportions of carbon and water. 
The chemist may take the woody fiber, sawdust, cotton- 
wool or any other vegetable tissue, and by a certain pro- 
cess change it into starch. He can change the starch 
into gum and the gum into sugar. These changes occur 
m plants. But the chemist cannot reverse this order 
and take sugar and bring it back to the condition of gum 
or starch or woody fiber. His art is powerless to make 
these transformations. But N'ature can produce them and 



78 THE DAIRTMAl^f'S MAKUAL. 

does; and it is done in the drying of grass into hay. Ex- 
posure to the sun's heat and light destroys the green 
color of the grass first ; the bright green pales and be- 
comes lighter at first, and in time changes to a brown. 
» This green color consists of a substance m the cells of 
the plant called chlorophyll, or leaf green. It is an oily 
^'substance, and under the influence of oxygen changes to 
a yellow. It is supposed that this coloring matter of the 
fresh grass imparts the yellow color to butter. Grass 
butter is yellow, but hay butter is white ; that is, if the 
hay is made in the common manner by sun drying until 
the green color is lost. The chemical, change in the 
making of tne hay has destroyed this coloring matter. 
This IS one of the changes. But the operation of drying 
the hay changes the sugar, gum and starch — m part — 
back to woody fiber. Hence hay contains a considerably 
larger proportion of fiber than grass does, and less sugar, 
gum and starch. The fiber is much less digestible than 
these substances, hence hay is not as nutritious as 
grass is. 

This IS one of the facts known in relation to grass 
upon which the proper process of making hay is based. 
Hay may be made so as to retain all the good qualities 
and nutriment of the grass. This is done by cutting 
f the grass — or clover, or any other fodder crop — when it 
is m its first stages of blossoming. It then contains the 
most of the valuable nutritious elements, and the least 
of the indigestible matter. And to preserve these nu- 
tritious elements from loss, the grass must be cured in 
the shade without exposure to the sun's light or heat, 
and dried by some heating process. In England the 
very best of hay is made by drying the newly-cut grass 
by artificial heat in a machine constructed for the pur- 
pose. The grass or clover is cut and dried at once, and 
retains its bright green color, its fragrant odor — given out 
by the essential oils contained in the grass, and which 



GRASSES FOR PASTURES Al^D MEADOWS. TO 

are absorbed directly into the cow's system and pass into 
the milk, and go into the cream and butter — and its con- 
tents of starch, gum, and sugar. With our favorable 
climate we do not need this drying apparatus ; we can 
gam the same ends without it. We cut the young grass 
or clover, leaving it on the ground a few hours only 
to get rid of the outer moisture and wilt it thoroughly, 
and then put it up in heaps or cocks, cover it with 
hay caps made of squares of strong cotton sheeting fifty- 
four inches wide, and leave 'it to ferment and heat 
slightly, which it does naturally. This heat drives off 
the moisture, and cooks — so to speak — to some extent, the 
woody liber, and changes it into starch and gum and 
sugar, and makes it easily digestible and nutritious. If 
it does not actually produce these changes, it prepares 
the fiber for digestion in the stomach of the cow, so that 
it can there undergo the change by which it is converted 
into the sugar of the milk and the fat of the cream. Thus 
it IS that the making of hay is really a very important 
business to the dairyman. It is not only the gathering 
of a harvest, it is also the performing of a chemical pro- 
cess by which the crop is improved in quality and is 
made more digestible and nutritious. And in perform- 
ing this work, the thoughtful, studious person cannot 
fail to be interested in the most pleasing and instructive 
manner as he becomes acquainted with one of the won- 
ders of nature, and learns how simple but yet how amaz- 
ing are the changes wrought in the plant by the force of 
natural laws which are incomprehensible to him. He 
knows that these changes occur, but not how they are 
induced or perfected ; he cannot tell how they are di- 
rected ; he can understand that they depend upon the 
wonderful mechanism of vegetable structure, and upon 
a living principle of which he is entirely ignorant except 
that it exists. What is this principle ? It is called 
vegetable life. It exists in the dry seed and germ ; it 



80 THE daikymak's ma:n-ual. 

wakens into action by the influences of beat and moisture, 
and controls the growth of the plant through a succes- 
sion of changes until it dies and leaves again a seed. 
What it is we know not; it is an amazing mystery. 



CHAPTER VII. 
SOILING AND SOILING CROPS. 

The practice of soiling is adapted for high pHced lafids 
near large cities, where the market for milk and fine butter 
affords a sufficient compensation for the large investment 
of capital and the other exjDcnses which appertain to highly 
improved localities. As seven acres of pasture are required, 
on an average, to supply one cow in fully profitable con- 
dition, it will not pay to feed cows in this way where 
land costs more than $100 per acre ; and indeed 150 per 
acre may be made the limit of cost in this respect. Where 
land is cheap, the products of it are cheaply raised, and 
where the land is higher, necessarily the products are 
more costly in proportion. Hence the dairyman whose 
farm costs liim four to ten times as much as that of a 
Western or Southern farmer, cannot possibly compete 
with him in making butter or cheese, because the cost of 
transporting those products to market by rail is much 
less than the difference in cost. But the case was worse 
than this, for the dairymen in Iowa and Wisconsin have 
had their goods brought to market in competition with 
those from New York and Vermont, and even New Jersey, 
at an actually less cost per pound for freight. This in- 
creased cost for less carriage was another of the burdens 
which forced dairymen in the East to resort to the prac- 
tice of soiling that they might reduce the cost of their 
products. 



SOILING AXD SOILING CROPS. 81 

Again, our hot dry summers very quickly burn up the 
pastures, and in July the feed becomes hard and scarce, 
and the milk product necessarily rapidly decreases. 
Hence, some adequate provision must be made to meet 
this emergency, and nothing serves so well as what are 
known as soiling crops, which are cut and carried to the 
cows on their pastures to help out the feed, or to yards 
or feeding lots where they are kept and fed wholly upon 
this green fodder. A very large product of milk of the 
best quality is thus procured, and the cows are kept up 
to their fullest productive ability by abundance of succu- 
lent food, helped by the use of such concentrated foods as 
can be purchased cheaply and are suitable for the pro- 
duction of milk of excellent quality. The average pro- 
duct of the cows may thus be easily doubled, while the 
increased cost of the service is not more than one-fourth, 
and in many cases, not one-tenth. In the author's dairy 
the yield of the cows has been brought up from five 
pounds to ten pounds of butter per week, by means of 
soiling, while one acre of land under crops has been made 
to support a cow during the entire year, and less than half 
an acre per cow has been used for pasture and for the 
needed runs for exercise. The profit has thus been not 
only in the increased product but also in the decreased area 
of land required, and in another way, viz., in the making 
and saving of a large quantity of manure, the advantage 
of this system has been very considerable. But there are 
many persons living in suburban localities whose home- 
stead contains but a few acres, one or two, or three, and 
this limited area is all that can be afforded to provide 
room for horse and stable, garden, and ground for keep- 
ing a family cow, a most indispensable necessity in 
semi-rural and rural districts. The practice of soiling 
meets such cases exactlv, for if one acre of land can be 
made by any sort of management to suppoi't a cow 
through the year, or even the summer, a most important 



82 THE DAIRTMAX'S MAKUAL. 

object is gained. And soiling will make this possible. 
For the practice of soiling some suitable arrangements 
are necessary, A yard provided with feed racks and a 
supply of water, adjoining the stable and furnished with 
an open shed for shelter; and for large herds some ad- 
jacent grass lots are required. The remainder of the 
land is unobstructed by fences and is all under the plow. 
Where soiling is only partial, and for the support of the 
cows while the grass fails for two or three months only, 
nothing more is required than suitable provision for grow- 
ing the crops and feeding them m some convenient 
manner, either m the pastures or in the yards or stables. 
The crops that have been found most suitable for the 
purpose are rye sown m the fall, orchard grass, clover, oats 
or barley and peas mixed, field corn, sweet corn, millet, 
alfalfa (lucern), and hay and roots for winter feeding. 
These crops are grown m succession ; that is, rye sown 
early in the fall makes the first feeding, either for early 
spring pasturing or cutting as soon as it shows the heads; 
this is followed by orchard grass, which is a permanent 
crop and may be pastured or mown as soon as the rye is 
exhausted. As the rye is cut off in strips across the 
field, the land stripped is at once manured, plowed, and 
planted with early sweet corn — Narragansett being pre- 
ferred, because it is nearly as early as the earliest, and is 
larger m growth and in every way excellent. As soon as 
another strip is cleared of rye, it is treated in the same 
way, until the whole of the rye ground is planted. Clover 
comes into use with or after the orchard grass. These 
crops as a rule should be cut and not pastured, as there 
is an economy of fully twenty-five per cent in cutting 
over pasturing. The clover lasts until the first sweet 
corn is ready early in July, and from that time there will 
be abundance of fodder from the corn all summer. As 
the ground is cleared of corn it is manured and plowed, 
and replanted with Evergreen sweet corn, or with early 



SOILING AXD SOILING CROPS. . 83 

Canada field corn, or some good variety of flint corn, as 
the Sanford, -which yields an abundance of fodder. My 
own preference, after several years' experience, is for 
Evergreen sweet corn, which meets every requirement 

( of the case, and is more palatable and nutritious than 
field corn. Some of the ground is sown at the etirliest 
opportunity in the spring with oats or barley and peas 
mixed, two and a half bushels of the former with one 
and a half of the latter per acre. This crop comes in 
early in July when the clover is exhausted, or is ready 
for cutting for hay. Mangels or sugar beets are planted 
late in May or early in June, and are reserved for winter 
feeding, the tops of these roots being the last green food 
of the season. The surplus of all these crops is used, for 
winter feeding, or a separate provision for the purpose 
is made of fodder corn, grass, millet, and other crops. 

For the purpose of procuring a large quantity of but- 
ter in the milk, which is advisable in every branch of 
the dairy business, and for the family supply as well 
where but one cow is kept, some of the concentrated foods 
are purchased. A proper selection of these foods will be 
made in reference to their cost and feeding value; for the 
market values are very often less and sometimes more 
than the feeding value, and Judgment is exercised as 

? economy and experience may dictate in the choice of 
these foods. Information in this respect is given in the 
chapter on Foods. As a rule, bran and corn meal are 
the best staple foods. Pea meal, cotton seed meal, malt 
sprouts, brewers' grains — when they can be kept sweet — 
and other similar foods may be used when circumstances 
are favorable. 

The management of a dairy herd under the soiling 
system is a matter of considerable importance, for the 
cost and effective results depend upon it to a large extent. 
The author's method lia- been as follows, and has been 
found economical and satisfactory in every respect. 



84 THE DAIEYMAIT'S MAK"UAL. 

The buildings were arranged as will be described in 
the chapter on Dairy Barns and Buildings. The methods 
of feeding are as follows : The first crop in the spring is 
fall-sown rye. When this is in head cutting begins. A 
one-horse mower is taken to the field, and two days' 
supply is cut. The mower is left in the field, covered 
with a waterproof sheet for protection. A cart or 
light wagon for the one horse is taken to the field, and 
the supply for two days is drawn to the barn. One 
day's supply is always kept ahead in the barn and one 
is left in the field as a precaution against bad weather. 
This is cut at night the first day, and afterwards each 
day's cutting is left in the field, put up in cocks and cov- 
ered with a large hay cap, and when it is brought into 
the barn another cutting is made and left ready. The 
second day's feeding is thrown into a heap on the barn 
floor ; it will heat a little, but this is beneficial rather 
than otherwise, as has been explained in the previous 
chapter. 

The fodder is cut in a fodder cutter ; for a large herd 
the horse or the bull may do the cutting, a tread-power 
being kept in an annex to the barn, with a shaft or belt 
passing through to the fodder cutter in the stable. A 
large feed-box receives the cut fodder. This is wetted, 
the water being procured from a pump connected with a 
cistern or well or spring, as the case may be ; but a cis- 
tern is preferable and most economical, being supplied 
from the barn roof. The grain food is mixed with the 
wet fodder. This is kept on the floor above, and is let 
down by a spout over the feed-box which is closed by a 
draw slide. The food is well mixed with a five-tined 
fork, so as to distribute the meal, etc., evenly. A large 
grain scoo]:) will hold enough for a ration for a cow. 
The food may be carried to the feed troughs close by 
in the scoop, or in a bushel basket ; one heaped bushel 
being the usual ration for one meal. 



SOILTNa AKD SOILING CROPS. 85 

When a strip a few rods wide is cut off, the land is at 
once plowed with a swivel plow, the furrows being all 
turned one way. To avoid heaping up the soil near the 
fence, an open furrow is first plowed a few feet from it, 
and then closed, leaving the surface level ; the land is 
then plowed close to the fence — if one is there — and then 
the other land is turned, leaving no open furrow or back 
furrow, as the furrows are all turned one way. Nar- 
ragansett sweet corn is then planted, with the Albany 
planter, in rows twenty-seven to thirty inches apart, the 
seed being dropped about twelve inches apart, and three 
to five grains in a hill. The land is kept well cultivated 
to keep it free from weeds, and to help the crop. A boy 
of eighteen is able to do all this work for a herd of thirty 
cows, the expense being no more than his wages. The 
other farm work is done by the ordinary help ; the boy's 
work being to cut the fodder, feed the cows, and, with 
needed help, to replant the crops at intervals of about a 
week or less ; some plowing may be done every day. 
Thus the work goes on all summer. 

In the winter, the fodder is cut in the upper part of 
the stable, and the cut feed is dropped down a large 
shoot into the feeding box under it on the floor below. 
The large, roomy stable has ample storage for hay and 
fodder above, and, as it is connected with the barn and 
other buildings, the fodder is easily brought to the sta- 
ble when a fresh supply is wanted. The roots are kept 
in a cellar under or connected with the barn, and for 
twenty or thirty head, or less, it is no difficult matter to 
slice a sufficient quantity every day in the feed box with ^ 
a spade ground sharp on the edge. Half a bushel daily 
is the regular ration, given at noon. The cut roots are 
sprinkled with the usual meal, and some salt. All the 
stock are fed in the same manner; the bull and the 
young heifers having their proportionate rations. The 
bull gets the same as a cow, being kept in serving condi- 



86 i:he dairyman^s makual. 

tion at all times, as in a dairy kept for full profit, and 
especially for fine butter, the winter should be the most 
productive season. The slack time in the author's dairy — 
kept for tlie sujjply of fine butter for sale to private fam- 
ilies in New York City — has always been in mid-summer, 
when customers are usually in the country, and away 
from home. This gives favorable opportunity for attend- 
ing to the crops, and gives a rest from butter-making at 
the most troublesome season of the year. 

The disposal of the manure is a matter of importance 
in this system of dairying. A large quantity of manure 
is made, as the cows are fed in the stable for most of the 
time, and the most perfect cleanliness is to be observed in 
all ways. The floor of the stable is air tight, as will be 
described hereafter. The gutter is kept constantly sup- 
plied with absorbents ; dry swamp muck dug in winter 
from the swamp meadow is freely used ; and plaster — 
a barrel is kept in the stable for the purpose — is liberally 
scattered in the gutter and on the floor to absorb the 
ammoniacal odor which would otherwise prevail. Twice 
a day the gutter is emptied into the manure cellar un-der 
the stable, where it is completely covered, at short in- 
tervals, with swamp muck, already stored in the cellar 
for the purpose. AVhen the manure is wanted for the 
land, which is quite often, it is removed from the cellar, 
or when not wanted it is taken to the fields, and is piled 
with swamp muck and a liberal sprinkling of lime to 
make compost. 

In this way the manure is never offensive, the abun- 
dant use of plaster keeping the cellar and stables free 
from odor, and the cellar floor is well covered every time 
it is cleared. As the growth of large crops requires 
abundance of manure, there is rarely ever more than a 
load or two in the cellar, except in the winter; and the 
supply IB scarcely ever sufficient, but needs to be aug- 
mented by a good deal of artificial fertilizer. 



SOILING ATSTD SOILING CROPS. 87 

The yield of crops under this system is about as fol- 
lows : of rye, eight tons green ; of sweet corn, early kind, 
eight to twelve tons green, two and one-half to three dry; 
of Evergreen sweet corn twenty-four tons green, five to 
six dry; of oats and peas, eight tons green, three dry; 
of millet, eight ' tons green, three dry; of orchard 
grass, three tons of hay; of clover, ten tons green, 
two and one-half tons of hay, and more in favorable 
years, the second growth giving at least one-half as much 
as the first crop. Mangels yield 800 to 1,200 bushels per 
acre as the season may be favorable, and sugar beets — 
Lane's Imperial, which is a large growing kind — yielding 
600 to 1,000 bushels. The French sugar beet is ex- 
tremely sweet, but is small, and yields only 300 to 400 
bushels to the acre ; it is consequently not profitable. 

In the Southern States, soiling can be carried on with 
the greatest profit. There are several crops which may 
be grown that are not suitable for the North. Pearl 
millet, teosinte, cow peas, millet (this thrives especially 
well), Bermuda grass (this affords the very best summer 
pasture, and, if fertilized, yields an enormous quantity of 
feed); Festuca ])ratensis (Meadow Fescue, Randall grass 
or Evergreen grass) grows luxuriantly and makes the 
best pasture ; rye may often be pastured all the winter ; 
the native wild grasses. Crab grass {Eleusina Lidica), 
Finger grass {ParJcum smiguinale) , Barnyard or Door- 
yard grass (Panicum crus-gaUi), sprouting Crab grass 
(Panicum proliferum), Texas millet, Panicum Texacum, 
and the common — far too common — beggars' ticks {Bi- 
dens frondosa) , and the — also too common — beggars' lice 
{Desmodium molle),dM furnish a most abundant pasturage. 
The large amount of woods pasturage, contaming much 
grass of various kinds and a wealth of leaves of young tim- 
ber, more nutritive than any grass or forage plants, also 
affords excellent subsistence for a large part of the early 
portion of the year; while for winter feeding, with hay and 



88 THE dairymaid's MAIifUAL. 

other fodder, the abundant sweet potato and the cheap 
cotton seed meal make the very best substitute for the 
Northern roots and grain feed. Butter can be made in 
the South for ten cents a pound, more easily than it can 
be for twenty cents in the North; and the markets there 
are far better, and better prices can be obtained than in. any 
part of the North, excepting in some of the largest cities. 
Of this fact the author can speak from a few years' per- 
sonal experience in the Southern States upon his North 
Carolina farm, as well as from several years spent in the 
dairy business in two Northern States. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
ENSILAGE OF FODDER. 

About sixteen or seventeen years ago the author, then 
one of the editors of the American Agriculturist, wrote 
the first description of a silo for the preservation of green 
fodder printed in America, in an article published in 
that paper, the pioneer agricultural journal of America. 
In that article was given a description of the then very 
imperfect process of making *^sour hay" from corn 
stalks which were buried in pits in the ground and 
covered with the earth taken out. Several years pre- 
viously (in 1855), the author, then traveling in Europe, 
saw at the agricultural school at Grignon, and at a large 
farm attached to a sugar beet factory, a number of silos 
of the same rough and ready character, in which clover, 
lucern, and the leaves of the beet were preserved. 

This practice had descended from the ancient Romans, 
who, on their peaceful Italian farms, thus stored their 
fodder for use in the winter season, and who, as was 
their wont, changing the plow and the hoe for the sword 
and the spear, spread over Europe a conquering host of 



ENSILAGE OP FODDER. 89 

the most skillful warriors, and carried with them to the 
conquered countries their civilization and their peaceful 
arts, thus laying the foundation for the future progress of 
that continent. In this manner the silo was introduced 
jOrstamong the Huns in Hungary, and then into Ger- 
many and France, where it remained until 1872 in 
the same condition. Then M. Goffart, an enterprising 
French gentleman, built the first silo of masonry, with 
solid air-tight walls, and a covering of planks weighted 
down with heavy stone. This cover, with constant 
pressure, is the great improvement made by M. Goffart 
in the silo; and to him also is the system of ensilage in- 
debted for the practice of cutting the green fodder into 
short lengths so as to cause it to pack more solidly in 
the silo, and when taken out to be in convenient form 
for feeding. When this form of silo is operated expertly 
the green food should not pass beyond the saccharine 
stage of fermentation, and when taken from the silo and 
exposed to the air the alcoholic fermentation soon begins. 
In this state the ensilage (preserved fodder) is in its best 
condition for feeding, and its food value is probably 
equal to what it would have been at the time of packing 
in the silo — that is, the changes have improved its di- 
gestibility as much as fermentation has reduced its 
weight of dry substance. 

M. Goffart published a book on the subject which was 
translated and published by Mr. J. B. Brown, of New 
York (President of the New York Plow Company, and 
an accomplished farmer), and it is through Mr. Brown's 
unselfish efforts that the practice became extremely popu- 
lar, and in time reached its present stage and condition. 

In 1879 Dr. J. M. Bailey, of Billerica, Mass., built the 
first double silo of concrete masonry, and stored about 
125 tons of corn ensilage, which gave him much satisfac- 
tion in feeding. His report stimulated inquiry and ex- 
periment in the new process. 



90 THE DAlRYMAN^S MAKITAL. 

At the beginning of 1880 this process was much dis- 
cussed by the agricultural press (following the lead of 
the American Agriculturist), and the result was the 
building of some fifty or more silos in different parts 
of jthe country, most of them substantial, and many of 
them in the most durable form. This was most remark- 
able progress for a new system to make in a single season. 
Probably 8,000 tons of corn ensilage were preserved. 
The reports from these various experiments were nearly 
all of them favorable, many of them very enthusiastic, 
as to its economy and value. Some very extravagant 
estimates were made as to the tons of corn raised upon 
an acre, but these estimates were soon reduced to solid, 
fact by the measurement of the compressed contents of 
the crops in the silos. Forty-six pounds were found to 
be the weight of a cubic foot of ensilage after compres- 
sion under 1,000 pounds to the square yard, and the 
content of the silo was easily measured, and thus the 
yield per acre determined. The yields noted ranged 
from twenty to thirty- three tons of green corn per acre. 
Thirty tons may be considered an excellent yield of green 
corn. This is equal to about five tons of water-free food, 
which is nearly five times the average yield of dry food 
per acre of our ordinary meadows. But it must be noted 
that the dry food of corn ensilage is not as valuable per 
weight as that from meadow grasses. 

Yet it must be admitted that the success of the silos 
built in 1880, in the ensilage of green corn, was very re- 
markable, and gave this new system a respectable stand- 
ing in American agriculture. But the final verdict upon 
the system was only given when it was applied practically 
to the preservation of meadow grasses and thus proved 
itself worthy of being considered a system in stock feeding. 

The cost of the ensilage at that time was found, in 
practice, t-o be from sixty-six to seventy-five cents per ton 
for the harvesting and putting in the silo, and the whole 



1N"SILAGE OF FODDi:^. 91 

cost from beginning, to the ending in the cow's stomacli, 
from one to two dollars per ton. This is equivalent to 
about seven dollars per ton for hay in the barn, at the 
extreme limit in disfavor of ensilage and in favor of hay. 
The result was found, by many farmers who had tried 
the process for several years, to be that one cow could be 
fed upon a ton of the ensilage per month, and twelve 
tons per year; thus making it possible to feed two cows 
upon one acre of crop, amounting to twenty-four tons 
of green fodder corn. Corn was found to be the cheap- 
est but not the best fodder for this purpose, and in time 
other crops were preserved in this way, such as clover, 
millet, green rye, oats and peas; and in England, whose 
moist and changeable climate favored the innovation 
very much, the ordinary field grasses were thus secured, 
wet from the field, in a safe and satisfactory manner, in- 
stead of being made into hay. 

The antiquity of the process gives security that it may 
be made permanent, and removes all fear that, like the 
abandoned copking of food, it might be found impracti- 
cable for ordinary practical use by farmers. During the 
past few years the practice has been much simplified, 
the costly and cumbrous stone and cement silo has been 
adandoned, and a common barn mow, closed tightly with 
matched boards doubled, and building paper between, 
and the method of heating the fodder by spontaneous 
fermentation, have been substituted for the old and more 
laborious system. The new process also gets rid of the 
acid and i^reserves the fodder in a sweet condition ; the 
heat of the fermentation destroying the germs which 
produce acidity and to some extent improving the fodder 
m regard to its digestibility. 

The following description of a silo is given by Mr. 
B. S. Hoxie, a dairyman in Wisconsin. 

'*If the silo is to be detached from the barn, make a 
low foundation wall, just high enough to prevent any 



92 THE DAIBYMAK*S MAKUAL. 

surface water ever coming in contact with the ensilage. 
Fill up the floor to the level of this wall, and finish off 
with clay well pounded down, or a cement of water lime. 
Next lay your sills of two by eight inch joist, flat on the 
wall, and bed them well in lime mortar; have them so 
firm that there will be no chance to spread or get out of 
place. On the joists place two by eight inch studding 
sixteen feet long, as this is a proper hight for the silo, 
and sixteen inches from center to center. Toenail firmly 
at the bottom of the sill. The object of placing the 
studding this distance apart is to accommodate the 
width of tarred paper, for a perfect silo must be perfectly 
air-tight on sides and bottom. Now put good tarred 
paper on the inside of the studs, lapping as it will so as 
to make tight work ; cover with good, sound matched 
flooring, and see to it that the corners are made secure, 
so that there will be no spread or give to let in the air. 
Inclose the outside surface with tarred paper same as 
in&'ide, and good drop-lap sidmg, as it is called, or any 
similar method; being careful to make it tight and firm. 
The roof is made as any ordinary barn roof, and the 
building may be finished up on the outside to suit the 
owner's fancy or pocket. A very good size for a silo 
would be sixteen by thirty-two feet, or, if more room is 
needed, make it longer and put in a cross partition of 
plank. This partition should be made so it will slip 
down into place and be held by cleats at its ends. The 
sides must be secured with one or more iron rods to keep 
the building from spreading. A convenient size for the 
door would be four feet wide in one end and made m 
sections of two feet each, sliding down in grooves so as 
to come out from the inside as the silo is emptied. These 
doors, as well as all inside work, must be made so as to 
form no obstruction to the settling of the fodder, with 
the boards and tarred paper which form the cover to 
the pit. This is one of the cheapest methods of con- 



El^SILAGE OF FODDER. 93 

struction, and is essentially as good a one as can be built. 
If a farmer has stone handy he can build one of solid 
masonry, but it would not keep out the frost or air better 
than one of wood. One end of a bay in the barn can be 
used, by observing the same precautions to have it air- 
tight."' 

The experience of Mr. John Gould, of Aurora, Ohio, a 
most intelligent, practical and well-known dairyman, is 
given as follows : 

''The corn plant is the great ensilage forage, as it is 
of sure growth, and in all seasons, wet or dry, can be de- 
pended upon for a fair product, and in average years will 
give more than twice as many tons per acre as any other 
crop that can be matched against it. Another point in 
progress is in recognizing the fact that the corn plant 
grows to develop an ear of gram, and if it is deprived of 
this function by overcrowding, it has no aim in life, and 
refuses to gather up rich stores of sugar, starch, and 
other elements out of which to perfect the ear. So we 
can safely put the difference in feeding value between a 
dwarfed, crowded stalk of corn with no ear, or no at- 
tempt to produce one, at about one-third that of another, 
that had more room, and has brought its ear to the 
' roasting ' stage. Instead of sowing broadcast two and 
three bushels of corn (168 lbs.), one-half bushel (28 lbs.) 
will be ample if drilled in rows three and a half feet 
apart. The result Avill be that the weight of fodder and 
ears will exceed that of a field sown with from 112 to 
168 lbs., and possess fully three times its feeding value. 
Maturity is another essential in good ensilage. The half- 
grown crop is little better than a mass of cellular tissue, 
filled with water; but the mature crop has brought the 
food elements forward to perfection. So we find that 
the time of greatest food value is when the crop has 
begun to glaze, as it then has the sugar element present 
in abundance to aid in its preservation. If properly put 



94 THE dairyma:n^'s makual. 

up, the fodder becomes canned green-corn fodder, and 
not the eu silage of the past — soggy, sour and rank-smell- 
ing material, for the reason that it was made of matter 
that underwent great change chemically, because devoid 
of preserving qualities. 

*^The silo has also made a great advance towards 
simplicity and cheapness, and any farmer can now 
have a silo ; for they are no longer classed as the rich 
man's monopoly. The best silos are now built wholly 
of wood above ground, building the frame of two 
by ten inch studding. The inside lining is made of 
two thicknesses of inch boards, with tarred paper be- 
tween, or it may be lathed and plastered, using cement 
instead of white lime. The outside is covered with ship- 
lap siding. This leaves a dead-air space, which should 
not be filled in with sawdust. The contents of a silo 
will not freeze in any Northern State, and the sawdust 
will — if filled in — gather moisture from being between 
the warm ensilage on the one side and the colder outer 
air on the other, and is a damage rather than a benefit. 
In localities where small stones and sand are abundant, 
it may be best to build concrete walls for the silo. They 
may be rough-faced on the inside, with strips of wood set 
up, and a lining put on to make an air-space and afford 
better protection from the influence of the walls. Or the 
walls may be cement-faced. Of whatever material the 
silo is built, the walls must be perjDendicular and smooth- 
faced, so that the ensilage shall not be resisted in settling. 
The silo, however, must be strong enough to withstand 
the lateral pressure of the ensilage. If built of timber, 
two by ten inch studding, set sixteen inches apart, will 
be none too strong, especially if the silo is sixteen feet in 
depth. Now that more mature fodder is put up, there 
seems to be no limit to the depth of ensilage that can 
be safely stored, as there is no pressing-out of the juice 
of the fodder, as was once the result of deep filling. 



ENSILAGE OF FODDER. 95 

Twenty feet will probably be the practical limit in 
depth. The silo should be so built that surface water 
can not come in from the bottom, as air-proof walls and 
a water-tight and air-proof bottom are the first two es- 
sentials in silo building. The best way is to put in cross- 
sills two by ten inches, to tie the footing of the studding, 
and after the silo is built fill in between these sills with 
water-lime and small stones, raising it an inch or so 
above the level of sills, making a smooth level floor. 

" The silo should be twice as long as wide, and at least 
twelve to sixteen feet deep. This enables it to be filled 
without delay, and also insures the coohing of the fodder, 
which is now considered essential. The silo needs a 
partition, dividing it into equal-sized rooms. An ensi- 
lage cutter is provided with a carrier which hoists the 
cut fodder up over the walls into the pits. The. plan is 
to cut into one pit one day, say from twelve to twenty 
tons of green fodder, and by slightly turning the upper 
end of the carrier, deposit the next day's cutting into 
pit No. 2. It is not necessary to tread or tramp the cut 
fodder, only to keep it level in the boxes. The tramping 
should be done along the side and corners, to make the 
sides settle as fast as the center. No more fodder should 
be added until the first filling has reached a temperature 
of 125 degrees, when another layer should be added. 
This is the cooking process. The addition of cold, fresh 
ensilage reduces the temperature of the first to about 
eighty degrees, and it cannot re-heat, or ferment, unless 
it is again exposed to the oxygen of the air. This alter- 
nate filling and heating goes on until the pits are full. 
The heating has rarified the air that was mixed in with 
the ensilage, causing it to escape upward, and a very 
dilute gas takes its place. The heating has also caused 
the ensilage to settle very compactly; and at last, when 
the pits are full, it is only necessary to let the last day's 
filling heat up, and then level off the surface of the silage, 



96 THE dairyman's manual. 

cover it with strips of tarred paper well lapped, and 
cover this with common rough inch lumber. This will 
keep out the air, and all that is necessary is to weight 
this cover with a ton or two of hay, sawdust, or even 
moist clay, to insure the cover remaining firmly upon the 
mass beneath as it settles, and to prevent the entrance of 
the air. Within three weeks the mass will cool down to 
about eighty degrees, where it will remain — a fact that 
guarantees it from danger of freezing. When ready to 
feed, remove the cover entirely from one pit, and feed 
evenly from the surface. It is not advisable to oj^en 
the door at the side of a silo all the way to the bottom, 
and begin to shovel it from- the floor. This lets the air 
into the side of the ensilage, and it commences to re-heat. 
We have knowledge of two farmers at least who opened 
at the side, and came very near losing the entire contents 
of a pit, and only saved it by prompt leveling down of 
the ensilage, and tramping it very hard and restoring it 
to a level. The side door to a silo should be made in 
sections of about eighteen inches each; these can be re- 
moved one by one, as the surface level is lowered by 
feeding. A great many silos are now built in the in- 
terior of the big barn, using a whole or part of a bay. 
Nearly five times as much forage can be put into a given 
space in the form of ensilage as can be stored in the same 
space if the crop is dried — fifty cubic feet of ensilage ^ 
weighing a ton — 500 feet or more are requisite for a ton 
of hay. 

*' The value of ensilage as a stock ration is now undis- 
puted. Nor can it be longer urged that it has, if put up 
^ sweet,' or reasonably so, any deleterious effect upon 
milk or butter. The great question is : How can we get 
it into the silo the cheapest and best ? The concurrent 
testimony of the great ensilage feeders is that the crop 
can be grown, liarvested, and put into the silo for 81.25 
per ton, all legitimate expenses included. And three 



DAIRY BUILDINGS. 97 

tons of ensilage having the full feeding value of one 
ton of the best hay, and a crop of from twenty to thirty 
tons of fodder corn per acre being an every-season's occur- 
rence, the vital question now coming up to be decided is: 
' Why should we continue to feed expensive hay to our 
cattle and sheep, when we can, under average conditions, 
supply of '' roughage " ample in amount to an animal for 
three cents per day?' And if we add four or five cents 
more for bran, to make a perfectly balanced ration, we 
have a food for our stock that in cheapness equals sum- 
mer pasturage." 

This may be supposed to be somewhat enthusiastic 
and overdrawn, but the fact that the practice is rapid- 
ly spreading among practical dairymen who run their 
dairies for their daily bread, and has never been aban- 
doned by any who have tried it, gives good evidence, and 
the best of all proof, that it is both useful and economical. 



CHAPTER IX. 

DAIRY BUILDINGS. 

The buildings for a dairy farm must be arranged skill- 
fully for ease, convenience, and the best effective results 
in the business. The barn for the storage of grain and 
fodder for winter feeding is not necessary for a dairy, 
the accommodation of the cows being of the most impor- 
tance, and the grain to be stored being usually of minor 
consideration. The points to be considered are the 
comfort of the cows, the easy maintenance of perfect 
cleanliness, the convenient handling and distribution of 
the food, economy of room, and facility for ingress and 
egress to every part of the buildings. My- cow stable, 
built after several years' experience and with a view to 



98 



TSE DAIKYMAX'S MAIS'UAL. 



securing all the points above mentioned, and which has 
been found very convenient and satisfactory in every 
way, IS arranged as follows: 

The mam building is fifty feet by twenty-four, and is 
intended to hold thirty cows in two rows; but so far only 
fifteen have been kept in it on one side, leaving a wide 
feeding passage, through which a one-horse wagon oi' 
light cart can be driven with loads of green fodder used 



in the summer when soiling the cows. 



Along the middk 



n □ D 



D 



B 



: c 



10 



F 

I — t 






H 



o c O O O -d 

. L 

o o o o o 



4 



M 



V/rc.Ua->-^ 



Fig. 9.— PLAN OF cow STABLE, YARD, AND PENS. 

of the barn is the feeding trough, eighteen inches wide, ^ 
and the feeding floor, B, is on the north side of it. Then 
comes the platform for the cows, C (figure 9). This is 
five feet wide, and slopes two inches in this distance to 
keep the floor dry. Back of this is a manure gutter, 
fourteen inches Avide and eight inches deep, and then a 
walking platform four and a half feet wide, making up 
in all half of the width of the barn. The southern wall 



DAIRY BUILDINGS. 99 

has broad windows, four feet apart, the whole length, 
that let ill a flood of sunlight in which the cows bask 
in comfort when the rough winds of winter howl with- 
out. These windows are furnished with green house- 
blinds for protection against the sun in the summer, and 
are furnished with wire screens to exclude flies and admit 
air, when in the warm weather the lower parts of the win- 
dows are removed. The stable is then darkened, and by 
the observance of cleanliness and the liberal use of Persian 
insect pow^der, the cows are able to rest in peace during 
the middle and hottest hours of the day, lying unmolested 
and making milk liberally in return for the comforts 
afforded. 

There is a manure cellar under the whole barn, and 
the gutter is emptied by trap doors in it. The floor is 
double and water-tight, and a coat of tar is laid between 
the two plankings. The cellar is closed in by windows 
and tight doors, so that the stable is kept free from cold 
drafts in this direction. The whole building is air-tight, 
and the upper floor is of matched boards, so that in the 
coldest weather the manure in the gutter does not freeze. 
The broad, roomy feeding floor is occupied by a fodder 
cutter, meal bins, and a large feed box for mixing feed. 
A pump, connected with both a cistern and a spring, 
stands near the feed trough. On the west side of the barn 
is a building, D, occupied as horse stable, carriage and 
wagon house, tool and store room. This has a door on 
the south end and a passageway from it past the stables 
and through the other places to the cow barn. At the 
other end of the cow barn are the large doors opening 
into an open shed connecting with the calf j^ens and bull 
pen and yard, and the small door for the entrance and 
exit of the cows. The yard, E, is provided with a long 
water trough, supplied from a pump connected with a 
spring near by. This trough is pivoted at the ends in 
frames, so that w^hen not in use it is turned bottom up- 



100 THE DAIKYMAlff'S MAI^UAL. 

vi'dTd and kept free from snow and ice. The yard is on 
high ground and the water is carried from all the build- 
ings into cisterns, so that the yard is always dry. 

The cows stand fastened in short stalls by means of 
chains stretched across the front of the stalls and Jiaving 
a ring at each end, which slides on long iron bars in the .^ 
stanchions, and a ring and snap hook in the middle. 
The cows have strong leather straps around their necks, 
with a ring fastened in each. This ring is fastened to 
the snap hook in an instant, and the cow can move her 
head very freely, but cannot reach over into the next stall 
to rob her neighbor or punch her. The feed trough is 
also divided by a prolongation of the partition of the 
stall, so as to confine each cow's food to herself. A 
sloping board along the front of the feed trough guides 
the cut feed emptied from the feed basket, which holds 
a bushel, into each section. It is a very few minutes' 
work to mix the cut hay or fodder, prepared the night 
before, w^ith the water and the meal in the feed box and 
distribute a basket of it to each cow. We have done this 
easily before breakfast in fifteen minutes, feeding the 
whole fifteen cows, and the bull and several calves besides. 
This arrangement provides everything convenient for the 
cows and the owner, and leaves nothing to be desired. 
There is ample room for work, for the cows, and for the 
feed. The floor is dry, warm, and easily kept clean and 
free from odor. The gutters are emptied very quickly, 
swept out with a stiff broom — of the kind used for city 
streets, and which fits the gutter— dusted freely with 
plaster from a barrel kept on the floor at the far end, 
and is at once littered with clean sawdust, leaves, or cut 
straw from the storeroom at the end of the stable. Ven- 
tilation IS provided when it is needed by opening the 
windows a trifle at the top or bottom, or by opening 
slides in the wall opposite the cows. A ventilating shaft, 
which can be closed in stormy weather, also aids in re- 



DAIRY BUILDIXGS. 101 

moving any disagreeable air which may gather ; but on 
entering the stable in the mornmg there is nothing of 
this kind perceptible. 

The cows, trained to it, walk into the stable and take 
their proper places without trouble, when they are fas- 
tened from the other side of the feed trough, where a 
partition three feet high closes in the stall, and they can 
be let loose in the same way. When the weather is too 
rough the cows are watered in the stalls from the pump 
in the stable. At other times the cows are turned out in 
the yard for water and for a run of two or three hours, 
or they may lie in the open shed, which is well littered 
with dry leaves from the wood lot. 

This arrangement has been the result of a gradual 
growth of practice and experience during many years, 
and has been found satisfactory, with perhaps one' ex- 
ception, and that is the addition of a silo for preserving 
green fodder for use in the winter. This, however, we 
look upon more in the light of an experiment to be tried, 
as with a roomy cellar under a part of the barn for man- 
gels and beets, which are used in the winter, a silo may 
be easily dispensed with. 

The plan of the stable is shown at figure 9. The 
main building is the central part, and every other 
part can be reached by the outer door, M, which is next 
to the dwelling. Near this door is the cow's hospital, /, 
where calving animals are kept for a few days until ready 
to go in the dairy. The open shed is at A, and a door 
leads from this into the feeding floor, and from this a 
door leads outside into the pasture and another into the 
buildings, D. The bull pen and yard are at F, and the 
separate calf pens at G. A gate is made in the end calf 
pen through which the cows may go at times into the 
field in the rear. At H is the manure shed witli feeding 
racks near it. The outer yard is at K. A large gate 
affords entrance into this yard and through the lane, Z, 



102 THE DAIRYMAN^S MAKUAL. 

into the road and the fields across it, as shown in figure 1. 
The numerous doors and gates are made self-closing by 
means of springs, so that accidents (?) from neglected 
open doors cannot happen. A number of hay and fodder 
barracks are at the rear of the stable, in the field which 
is within easy reach. 

Stable Floors. — Tlie most important part of the stable 
is the floor. As a rule, the earth is the best floor for a 
stable of any kind. If it is hard enough, a firm clay or 
gravel, it will soon become so solid as to need no repair. 
But it is not often the case that such a naturally solid floor 
can be found. It is, therefore, necessary to reinforce it by 
some covering of concrete or cement. This is done as fol- 
lows: The floor is first graded in a suitable manner to the 
gutter; two inches in four and a half or fi\^e feet, which is 
the right width of a floor for cows, is a sufficient slope. 
The most of this slope should be made near the gutter, 
where it is • most required. The floor is then covered 
with a mixed concrete of sand and gravel, with common 
lime first properly slaked and well worked together with 
a hoe, and left in a heap after working once a day for 
several days. This makes it tough and durable. Some 
coal ashes well worked in, after being wetted, makes the 
concrete still more durable. Sawdust, first soaked with 
water, also adds to the strength of the concrete, and 
plenty of short straw will have the same effect. Good, 
tough clay, worked well into a stiff puddle w4tli sawdust 
or short straw, or both, makes a good material for a 
stable floor. Hydraulic cement, in the proj^ortion of one 
barrel to three barrels of sharp sand, and five or six 
barrels of coarse gravel, makes the best and most durable 
floor, and if saturated with hot gas-tar will be com- 
pletely water-proof and rat-proof. The work is don» as 
follows: The common lime is properly slaked in the 
usual manner; after it is cold the sand is worked in as 
for building mortar; twice its bulk of coal ashes or coarse 



IDAIRY BUILDINGS. 103 

gravel, first wetted, is then well worked in. The more 
it is worked with the hoe and shovel, and left in a heap, 
the tougher it becomes. 

For a clay floor, the clay is worked up with a hoe in 
the same way, coal ashes, gravel and short straw being 
worked in until a stiff mass is made. For a cement 
floor, the cement is mixed dry with three times its 
measure of dry, clean sand, and is then wetted and made 
into a thin mortar, to which is added the coarse gravel 
wet. Only as much is mixed as can be spread at one 
time and within fifteen minutes, as it sets and hardens 
very quickly. As any one of these materials is spread it 
is well rammed and beaten down, with a rammer made 
out of a round log, and the handles set into holes bored 
with a one and one-quarter inch auger. 

After the floor is spread it is smoothed over with a 
plank. Water is poured on, if necessary, and the more 
the surface is rubbed the better it will be. If any one 
of these floors is finished with the gas-tar it will be found 
very serviceable — the odor tends to keep all sorts of ver- 
min at a distance, and, as it will not absorb the liquid 
manure, is easily kept clean. 

A very excellent floor is made of round stone well 
rammed into the ground, and covered with a coating of 
mortar of either of the kinds described above, then well 
rubbed over and finished with the gas-tar. 

The gutters should have a fall to the outlet of the 
stable, where the liquid manure can drain into a manure 
pit; or the gutter should be kept well filled with some 
dry absorbent or litter, as chaff, leaves, straw, pine straw, 
or dry muck from a swamp. It is an excellent thing to 
bring in the manure from the horse stables and put in the 
gutters to absorb the liquid, which is more abundant in 
cow stables, and so to mix the two and thus improve 
both. When the cow stable has a cellar under it the 
floor must be of plank. To make this floor in the best 



104 



THE DAIRYMAN S MAl^UAL. 



manner, it should be double and laid with a gutter in it. 
The planks are necessarily laid crossing the beams, 
but to prevent drip into the cellar, and to save all the 
liquid, the planks should be laid double, with the joints 
broken. To make the floor in the very best manner, 
and quite water-tight and most durable, the first one 
should be well coated with hot tar, and the upper planks 
laid in this, getting the joints filled with the tar. A 




^. ' i^^:Sgf^j!^^^;:mii>fi^^^^ 



Fig. 10.— PLAN OF STANDING FLOOR. 

floor so laid will last for twenty years, or three times as 
long as any other. It is a good plan to give a plank 
floor a coat of whitewash under and on the top once a 
year, as the lime prevents decay. A floor thus treated 
would probably remain sound as long as the rest of the 
building. Such a plank floor should slope the same as 
any other, excepting that the gutter may be level, as the 
manure will be emptied through trap-doors into the cel- 
lar below. The manure is easily removed by drawing it 
forward to the doors with a broad hoe, when it falls, 
without further trouble. The plan of a stable floor is 
shown at flgure 10. 

The next matter of importance is the yard. A yard 
must be roomy. For twenty-five cows, half an acre is 



DAIRY BUILBIKGS. 105 

not too much. This space gives ample room for the 
cows to be safe from the attacks of the master animals, 
who are always exceedingly spiteful to the weaker ones. 
It gives ample room for fodder racks, for a milking shed, 
for a manure pit, and for watering troughs, which can 
be used safely by the weak cows. No other animals 
should be permitted in the yard. 

In the center is the manure pit, to be hereafter de- 
scribed; at each end of this is a watering trough, to be 
supplied, if possible, by a pipe from a spring, or from a 
cistern and a force pump. Around the yard are fodder 
and straw racks, in which the roughness or coarse feed 
is given. At one corner is a milking shed, in which the 
cows are tied for milking, or where they may find shelter 
from a rain. It will be a great advantage if the yard is 
shaded by trees planted around it, as shelter from the 
winds as well as the sun, for the yard will be needed in 
the summer as well as in the winter. 

The manure pit should be sunk about two feet below 
the surface, and this should be kept filled with litter, as 
forest leaves, pine straw, swamp muck, etc., and it should 
be surrounded with a stone wall, or a log fence, four feet 
high, having a driveway at each end for the purpose of 
admitting a wagon for the removal of the manure. A 
drain, covered — without exception — should lead from 
the gutter in the stable to this pit, to convey the liquid 
manure. The solid manure and litter are wheeled out 
from the stable to the pit at each morning cleaning of 
the stable. If possible^and it should always be an object 
to do this — as much litter and waste matter as can be 
gathered should be spread over the manure, as an absorb- 
ent of the liquid, and to add to the bulk. Every week a 
liberal application of plaster should be scattered over the 
manure to absorb and combine with the odors, of the 
decomposing mass. This completely prevents all offen- 
sive odor, and adds much to the value of the manure. 



106 THE DAIRYMAN^S MANUAL. 

The pit should not be covered, as it will need all the rain 
which will fall upon it to keep it moist enough to pre- 
vent fire fanging or dry rot, which utterly destroys the 
value of manure. No water from the buildings sliould 
flow into this pit, but the yard should be graded so as to 
give easy drainage of the surface water into the manure 
pit, where it will be absorbed, and a few holes should be 
left in the wall to allow this water to drain m. 

The yard will then be kept dry and free from mud. 
To add to the supply of manure, and to cover the drop- 
pings, the whole yard should be kept deeply littered. 
Green weeds from bottom lands and swamps, leaves, and 
any other coarse matter which can be procured m any 
way should be thus used. If this can not be done, the 
droppings should be gathered up with a shovel and a 
wheelbarrow and thrown into the manure pit, but in 
whatever way it is done, the yard mtist be kept clean. 
It will be a saving of labor in keeping the cows clean, 
and very much, lighten the use of the card and the brush 
for this purpose. If the yard can not be located on high 
and dry ground, and there is any danger of mud in wet 
weather, it should be drained, and the drains made to 
discharge in some convenient way into a field, where the 
water can be spread over grass or some other crop, or be 
usefully employed in other ways. 

The water troughs should be made tight so as to pre- 
vent leakage, which will make the ground muddy, and 
should be provided witli some means to carry off the 
overflow. They should be provided with covers where- 
ever snow will fall and choke them or chill the water, 
and these covers should always be let down when the 
cows are not in the yard. By providing cisterns to (^atch 
all the roof water, an ample supply will be procured, and 
rain water is the purest and best for the use of dairy 
cows. To keep the roof water pure, it is well to have 
the roofs painted, especially when oak or chestnufy shin- 



DAIRY BUILDmGS. 107 

gles are used, as these stain the water a dark color, and 
give it an objectionable taste, so that the cows will not 
take enough of it to supply their wants. "When the cows 
are taken out of the yard, the trough should be emptied 
while the weather is cold, or there is danger of making 
ice in the troughs. Ice water is exceedingly hurtful to 
cows, and should never be used in a dairy. 

An excellent way to make a trough is to procure white 
oak plank two inches thick, twelve or fourteen feet long, 
and twelve inches wide. For the bottom a plank sixteen 
inches wide is used. The edges of the bottom and end 
planks are evenly dressed and covered with two or three 
thicknesses of roofing paper dipped in tar. The sides 
are then drawn up close to the bottom and ends by 
means of screw-bolts, and this will make a strong, cheap, 
durable, water-tight trough. The troughs should be 
three feet above the ground, so as to avoid the gathering 
of filth in any way whatever. The yard should be well 
fenced with a strong plank fence, capped on the top, and 
should have several gates opening on hinges and closed 
with such fastenings as can not be loosened by any of the 
more experienced cows. The fence should be at least 
five feet high. 

Cow-sheds. — The practice of lodging valuable cows 
in a basement of a large barn filled with the most com- 
bustible matter, and provided with flues and air passages 
for the rapid spread of fire and passage of suffocating 
smoke, has frequently led to the entire and cruel destruc- 
tion of fine herds of cattle, worth thousands of dollars 
each. The most valuable cattle are thus apt to be en- 
dangered. As the loss of a herd is a calamity equally 
serious to a working dairyman as to a wealthy amateur 
farmer, one of the first objects to secure should be safety 
from fire, without sacrificing other requisites, as cheap- 
ness, comfort, convenience and cleanliness. 

An excellent cow shed, in every way desirable, may be 



108 



THE DAIKYMA2^'S MANUAL. 



built 013 the following plan (figure 11), which shows 
a complete arrangement, enclosing a square^ yard, and 
which will be isolated from other buildings. It consists 
of thirty-three loose stalls for cows and eight pens for 
calves and bull, in the front, on each side of the entrance 
gate. Each stall is six by eight feet, and separated by 
boarded partitions four feet high. The shed is nine feet 
high in the front, seven feet in the rear, is twelve feet 
wide, and ninety or 100 feet long. The roof is of boards. 
The frame is made of posts set in the ground, with a two 




Fig. 11.— PLAN OF CATTLE SHED. 

by four inch plate and girders of the same size where 
needed. There is a feed passage leading from a room 
in one end (A), for preparing? the feed which traverses 
the whole length. There is a feed trough in each stall, 
and a bar or pole is fastened along the whole range of 
stalls, eighteen inches from the top of the front partition, 
by which the cattle are prevented from approaching the 
front too closely, and mounting the feed troughs, or put- 
ting their feet into them. The cows are kept loose in 



DAIRY BUILDIN'GS. 



109 



the stalls, unless otherwise desired; in which case they 
can be fastened to rings screwed to the sides of the stalls. 
A cistern, which collects the water from the roof, is made 
at B. The front of each stall has a double door, so 
made that the upper part may be left open for ventila- 
tion. Ventilating apertures may be made above each 
door, for use m cold weather. The sheds are arranged 
in a square, as shown, with a gate at one side for entrance 
into the interior yard. The yard will give room for ex- 
ercise, and racks may be provided 
in it for feeding green fodder, hay 
or straw. The plan is admirably 
adapted for the soiling system of 
feeding, and the making of a large 
quantity of manure, while forty or 
fifty cows may be provided with 
comfortable room, at a cost of $600 
to $750 only. In many cases, the value of the manure 
saved by soiling cattle m such a shed will repay its whole 
cost in one year. A section of the interior is shown 




Fiff. 12. 




Fig. 13.— SECTION OF CHEAP BARN AXD STABLES. 

at figure 12. At figure 13 is a section of a cheap barn 
and stables connected. The building may even be 
brought lower at the eaves, aiid provide pens for pigs and 
calves, or sheep, or open sheds for tools, etc. In this 
way it is protected from sweeping winds, which can have 
hut little effect upon it. The central space is used for 
storing hay or grain, or for threshing, and the side 
spaces for stabling cattle. Three and a half feet in 
length of floor space will accommodate two head, so 



110 THE DAIKYMAK'S MANUAL. 

that a seventy-foot barn will hold forty head, and pro- 
vide abundant room for the crop of 100 acres, at a 
cost of about ten dollars per running foot. Light timber 
only is needed, and rough posts set in the ground will 
make the basis of the frame. The plan is arranged for 
a building to be seventy feet long, and fifty feet wide, 
with the central space twenty-six feet, and the wings 
each twelve feet wide ; wide doors are made at each end, 
and also through the center ; the stanchions or stalls 
in the center are movable, and may be easily taken down 
when it is necessary to use the central cross passage. 

The Disposal of MAis"URE is another important mat- 
ter, and the construction of manure cellars should receive 
attention. Manure may be saved and made most easily 
in a cellar under the stable. By the use of trap-doors in 
the gutter on the floor, the manure and soiled litter can 
be drawn down and dropped into the cellar in five min- 
utes. The stable is then clean and ready for a fresh 
littering of sawdust and leaves or short straw. To draw 
the manure along the gutter, I have used a large hoe 
made as wide as the gutter. This cleans the floor when 
necessary, as well as the gutter. A stiff broom is then 
used to sweep the gutter clean. The manure falls in a 
heap under each trap-door in the gutter, and is immedi- 
ately spread and covered over with a coat of dry swamp 
muck kept in readiness in the cellar. A heap of the 
muck is then thrown under each trap-door to catch the 
drip of liquid which comes from the gutter. In this way 
there is no foul odor in the stable. If any should be 
noticed, the floor is dusted all over with plaster kept in 
a barrel in the stable for that purpose, and a half bushel 
of it is taken into the cellar and spread over the manure. 
In this way the stable is kept free from all disagreeable 
odor, and the most fastidious person could walk through 
it without the least disgust and witness the milking 
which follows this operation. 



DAIRY BUILDINGS. Ill 

The cellar should be at least nine feet liigh in the 
clear, to permit the men who work in it to load the 
wagons. I have had my cellar four feet deep with 
manure, and as it was fifty by twenty-four feet, this gave 
4,S00 cubic feet, or about sixty tons. Manure made of 
swamp muck and leaves in large proportion, with the 
cow's droppings and urine, is not so heavy as the clear 
manure, and will weigh only about one and a half ton 
to the cord, but a ton of it is worth at least $5, if esti- 
mated in the way the value of artificial fertilizers is. I 
have used many hundred dollars' worth of fertilizers in 
addition to the large quantity of manure made in this 
way, and have often used $25 worth to the acre ; but I 
have found that five tons of the stable manure, made as 
here described, from my liigh-fed cows, have shown more 
effect upon my light soil than the fertilizer. Being quite 
fine and pulverulent, it is spread from the manure- 
spreader quite evenly, and as a top dressing upon rye in 
the early spring, or grass or clover, it shows a conspicuous 
effect after the first rain. This is to be attributed to the 
fact that all the valuable urine is saved, and that plaster 
so liberally used preserves every atom of fertilizing mat- 
ter, besides adding something of its own. At least fifty 
pounds of plaster are used to each ton of manure, as it is 
scattered in the horse-stable and pig-pens, as well as in 
tlie cow-stable and the cellar under it. 

The bottom should be cemented, unless the greatest care 
is exercised to use an abundance of absorbents. I have 
never suspected any waste in my cellar, although the bot- 
tom is of sand. During many cleanings out the cellar bot- 
tom has become hollowed considerably, and any liquid 
free in it would soak into the sand. But I have never 
found the sand, even after some years' use, to be discolored 
more than an inch in depth. I would advise every man 
who makes a manure cellar to have it cemented; making 
the floor dishing to the center, The floor should be 



112 • THE DAIRYMAN S MAKUAL. 

covered three inches deep with concrete, made of gravel, 
six parts ; sand three parts ; and hydraulic cement one 
part. These are well mixed into a thin mortar, which is 
evenly spread and well rammed down until it is firm and 
solid. It is advisable when it is dry to give it a coat of 
hot gas-tar, which makes it harder and more durable, and 
less liable to break under the weight of a- load of manure, 
and it keeps vermin out. The cellar should have several 
windows to afford thorough ventilation. This is very im- 
portant. The manure made by well-fed cows is rich and 
quickly ferments, throwing off a good deal of carbonic 
acid gas ; more especially from the action of the plaster 
upon the ammonia which is formed, and which unites 
with the plaster, giving off carbonic acid. A good deal 
of hydrogen gas is also evolved, which, with the carbonic 
acid, will at times form carburretted hydrogen, and it is 
well to get rid of this gas as quickly as possible, as it 
is very deleterious. A thorough ventilation is therefore 
needed, and at least six windows should be provided in 
the cellar as near the upper part as may be. These win- 
dows should have sliding sash, and need not be larger 
than three feet by one and one-half, placed lengthwise 
horizontally. 

The door should be at least twelve feet wide and made 
to run on hangers and a track, so as to slide easily each 
way. They are then in no way inconvenient, as hinged 
doors always are. My doors are open on the upper 
half, and are there barred, to admit air and to make 
them lighter. No animals are permitted in the manure 
cellar. There is nothing there for them to eat, and if 
there was, I object strongly to any animal consuming as 
food any part of the excrement of another; believing this 
to be a prevalent source of disease and loss, and to be 
avoided as unnatural, filthy, and unwholesome in the 
extreme. Moreover, pigs will do better with healthful 
exercise in a grass field or a wood lot, than in turning up 



DAIRY BUILDIXCtS. 113 

the manure in a cellar; and poultry, kept in manure are 
not fit food for a civilized being. 

A cellar should he built firmly and neatly. If stone is 
used it should be well laid in lime mortar, and the spaces 
well filled with broken fragments. Care is to be taken 
to have no burrowing places for rats and mice, and one 
excellent feature of a good cellar is that it serves as an 
entire defence against the assaults of these vermin upon 
the stable and barn above it. The beams and joists- are 
well hidden in the wall, and the floor above is laid close 
down upon the wall plate, which is a three-inch plank 
bedded in the mortar, and upon which the posts and 
studding of the frame of the stable rest and are spiked. 
The stable floor comes up snugly to this plate, and so 
leaves no ere vice through which a mouse could force 
itself. As the barn above the stable has a tight floor, 
there is no chance for mice to get up there, and any one 
which by chance gets in the stable is soon captured by 
the well-fed cats, which have their home m the stable 
and get regular rations of milk twice a day. Lastly, it 
is advisable to make the corners of the cellar of dressed 
stone, and lay them up with care, as these are usually 
the first part of a cellar wall to give out, and are the 
most important. 

Stable for a Family Cow. — Where but one cow is 
kept the stable may be located conveniently near the ^ 
house if desired, because a well-kept stable will never be ** 
disagreeable in any way to the most fastidious house- 
keeper. Therefore I would have the stable for a family 
cow near the house, and not a hundred feet distant. It 
may be made to include a wood-house, a store-room, a 
dairy room and a garden tool house. It should be 
located upon rising ground, or so that water flows every 
way from it. The water from the roof should flow into 
a cistern, which will supply all the water needed. 
The stable should have an upper loft for hay and a 



114 THE DA.I11YMA1^'S MANUAL. 

store-room below for feed. A building twenty-four by 
sixteen feet and sixteen feet high will be roomy and con- 
venient. The cow stalls should be three and a half feet 
wide and twelve feet long in all. It is well to have two 
stalls : the extra one may be wanted for some other pur- 
pose, if not for a cow. To preserve cleanliness the floor 
should slope backwards a trifle, to a shallow ditch placed 
four and a half to five feet from the inside edge of the 
feed trough, in which ditch the droppings may fall. 
This will leave room behind for a broad passage from 
which a door leads into the barn. The manure gutter 
should drain into a manure tank outside. This is best 
made with a brick wall and covered with a tight trap-door 
to keep out flies in the summer. For this purpose, 
too, some powdered copperas may be liberally sprinkled 
over the manure and in the gutter. This will absorb all 
the smell and destroy the larvae of house and dung flies 
which would otherwise gather by thousands in the man- 
ure. The feed trough should be two feet from the floor to 
the top, sixteen inches Avide and twelve inches deep, which 
is sufficient to hold a full mess of cut grass or corn fodder. 
In front of the feed trough is a partition four feet high, 
and in this a falling door is made across the whole front 
of the stall, on a line with the top of the feed trough, by 
hanging one of the boards upon hinges and securing it 
by a cord, so that it can fall only to an angle of forty- 
five degrees and so make a slide by which to put the 
feed into the troughs. The feed passage will be three 
feet wide and in front of the stall or stalls. It should 
be provided with a neat, covered feed bin at the end. 

The remainder of the building may be used for various 
purposes, for a carriage house if a horse is kept, or for 
wood, coal, storage, etc. A stairway may be made in 
one corner leading to the upper floor, and the pump and 
cistern may be conveniently placed under it. Where 
only one cow is kept, a very cheap shed with no upper 



DAIRY BUILDIKGS. 



115 



floor will be sufficient, and forty dollars will be amply 
sufficient to supply a family cow with every comfort and 
convenience. The floor should be of cement or brick, or 
of hard-rammed clay. Wood is the least desirable floor. 
A cement floor is the best, and if well made it is vermin- 
proof. It should be made of one part of Rosendale 
cement and three parts clean sand, mixed dry and then 
with water into a thin mortar, to which add seven parts 
of coarse gravel. This should be laid three incbes deep 
and have a top coat of half an inch of the clear mortar 
for a finish. A washing with a few pails of water occa- 




Fig. 14.— STABLE WITH PODI.TKT-HOUSE. 

sionally will clean off such a floor and keep it sweet. 
The safest manner of fastening for a cow is a broad 
leather strap around the neck, with a ring in it, and a 
short rope tied into an auger-hole near the top of the 
front of the trough, having a snap-hook attached to the 
free end. 

A plan for a stable to accommodate the family cow 
and one or two horses, with a poultry-house annexed, and 
suitable for a modest country residence, is given at fig- 
ures 14 and 15. The central part comprises two horse 



116 



THE DAIRYMAN S MANUAL. 



stalls, five by ten feet, and a loose box for a cow, seven 
and a half by ten feet, with a passage, in which is a feed 
bin, room for a fodder cutter and feed box, and stairs to 
the hay loft. Over the feed box is a hay shnte from the 
loft above. The poultry-house adjoins the passage, from 
which t>vo doors open into it. This house is eighteen by 
twelve feet, and has a slopmg front of glazed sash. The 



CL ^ 



I 

Fiff. 



FEED 



COW. 



PICS. 



a: 



15.— PLAN OP STABLE WITH POTJLTBT-HOUSE. 

roosts are shown in the engraving by the three bars in 
each apartment. The poultry-house is divided into two 
parts, so that one can be appropriated for young chickens 
and brooding hens, which is a very convenient method, 
and avoids the loss of a single chick. At the other end 
is a yard for manure, with a pig-pen at the rear. 

An Open Cow Shed. — A cheap and convenient open 
shed for feeding or milking may be built as follows. 




Fig. 16.— OPEN cow SHED. 

Posts are set in the ground in four rows ten feet apart; 
the posts in the outer rows being ten feet apart and 
seven feet above the ground, and those in the inner rows 
being five feet apart and ten feet high. These posts are 



Dairy buildikgs. 



ll*? 



mortised and pinned at the top to plates upon which 
rafters are laid, and where necessary girders are spiked to 
the posts. A feed trough is fastened to each inner row 
of posts, and a hay rack is fixed above each trough ; the 
passage between the rows of posts is used for the purpose 
of drawing fodder in a cart or wagon. The spaces be- 
tween the inner posts form roomy stalls for the cattle, if 
desired, and if cows are kept the posts may be placed 
seven feet apart, and double stalls holding two cows each 
may be made. A tight roof is made overhead, and the 
gables and part of the sides and ends may be closed in; 
or the whole may be closed in and turned into a roomy 




Fig. 17.— CHEAP cow STABLE. 

and comfortable stable. The author has a shed of this 
kind on his farm in western North Carolina. It is 
found most convenient for the stock, and for storing hay 
and fodder in the upper part, which is four feet high at 
the eaves. The roof is made half pitch and consequently 
gives a large storage space on the upper floor. It is 
used for milking cows and feeding stock cattle in the 
winter. The cattle are tied by short ropes around the 
horns. In a timber country a shed of this kind may be 
built for about one dollar per running foot. 
A Very Cheap Cow Stable for a rural cottage is 



118 



Tfl13 DAIRYMAN S MAXUAL. 



shown at figures 17 and 18. The posts in front are 
twelve feet in hight, and the rear ones eight. The 
boards are put on Tertically, and battened on the sides. 
The roof is made of rough boards laid double, and 
breaking joints, so that it will not leak. The box for 



FEED 
ROOM 



zr 

EL 



a. 



OPEN SHED. 
7X14 



MEAL 
BOX 



FEEDING 
PASSAGE. 



I 



STAaFORCOW 



Fig. 18. — PLAN OF CHEAP COW STABLE. 

the COW is eight by ten feet and six feet four inches 
high, and has a feed passage four by eight feet adjoining 
it. The middle portion of the building is an open shed, 
seven by fourteen feet, which is used for storing muck, 
protecting the manure heap from the rains, etc. 



CHAPTER X. 



WATER SUPPLY. 

A COPIOUS supply of pure water is indispensable for a 
dairy. This is one point to which particular attention 
should be given in selecting a farm for this use. A 
clear, cool, running stream through the pasture, and 
near the barn, is the most convenient source for the 
supply of the cows ; but unless the farm controls the 
springs from which the stream issues it is apt to be the 



WATER SUPPLY. 119 

worst of all. If the water is contaminated in any way, 
the quality of the milk will inevitably suffer ; and many 
cases occur in which a dairyman, annoyed by a sup- 
posed mysterious trouble with the milk, and the butter 
or cheese made from it, has at last found the cause to be 
impurity in the water drank by the cows. Moreover, a 
large quantity of water is required in a dairy for cleans- 
ing the pans, and if this water is not pure the very 
source of the supposed cleansing brings impurity into 
the dairy. My own supply of water was procured from 
springs which were opened in the bottom of a slope be- 
low the house and barn, by digging three or four feet 
down to a bed of fine clean sand and gravel, when the 
water immediately flowed out over the brim and down 
to a small spring stream in the bottom, which was fed by 
a large number of bubbling springs in its bed. Such a 
source as this, conveniently close to the barn, and not so 
low bat it can be brought up to it in pipes, by means of 
a pump, is the very best ; as the water is pure, cool in 
summer and warm in winter, and in unlimited sup- 
ply at all seasons of the year. The manner in which 
this supply of water was made available is as follows : 
A reservoir or tank was dug out near the foot of the slope, 
sufficiently deep to hold an abundant stock, and to se- 
cure an even temperature, which averaged from' forty- 
eight to fifty degrees in midsummer, and forty-five to 
forty-eight degrees in midwinter. The pool was lined 
with a wall of stone laid closely and covered with a small 
building for protection. Other springs were opened and 
walled in the same way, and arched over with stone, 
after providing a safe outlet with drain tiles, and an air 
trap to prevent access of any small insects or animals. 
Pipes of galvanized iron were laid for these springs in 
trenches three feet deep, so as to be safe from frost, and 
to preserve coolness in the hot weather, and connected 
with pumps in the house, stable, barn, and barnyard. 



120 



THE DAIRYMAK^S MANUAL. 



Where the hight of the hillside was too great to permit 
of the use of a common suction pump, a dry well was 
dug to a sufficient depth, viz., eight feet, and the pipe 
was carried to the bottom of it and connected with a 
force pump, so that the water could be carried, by 
means of a hose, to any part of the yard or stables (see 
figure 19). A nozzle attached to this hose made it easy 
to throw a stream of water over any of the buildings ; a 
most useful thing in case of fire^ or for washing the 




Fig. 19.— DRAWING WATER FROM A SPRING. 

stable floor, wetting the manure heaps to prevent fire 
fanging, and other desirable purposes. 

Where springs of this kind are not available, common 
wells are next in value. But as wells are quickly contam- 
inated by drainage from the surface, when in or near 
barnyards or stables, it is advisable to have the well for 
use in a dairy at some safe distance from the stable and 
yard. It is only a question of time when the percolation 
of water fouled by the manure in a barnyard, constantly 
leaching by the rain, will reach the well ; and although 
the water is filtered to some extent by its passage through 



WATER SUPPLY. 121 

the soil, yet in time a filter becomes fully charged with 
the impurities and cannot act any longer. 

To be quite safe a well should be situated on the rising 
side of a bed of impervious clay, or gravel based on clay, 

I so that any soil drainage should be cavried from the well. 

'To exclude surface water the upper part of the well 
should be curbed with brick laid in hydraulic cement, 
and the wall should be carried some inches above the 
surface and then covered with a flat 'flagstone with a 
small hole in it for the pipe of the pump to pass through. 
The flange of the pump should be cemented to the stone, 
so that notliing can gain access to the well. A mound 
of clay beaten firmly and sodded over with grass should 
be put around the well, to divert the rain water ; or a 
large water-tight platform should be made around the 
pump. 

Where there are neither springs nor wells, cisterns will 
be found useful. With some precautions cistern water is 
quite free from objection. The precautions to be ob- 
served are to have the cistern .on high ground and safe 
from ingress of surface water, and to have an automatic 
arrangement for diverting the flow from the roof at the 
first part of the shower, which washes the filth from the 
gutters. A surprisingly large quantity of waste matter 
will gather on a roof in a short time. Atmospheric 
dust, pollen from trees and plants, droppings of birds, 
insects, small dead animals, and the wear of the roof 
covering, all these are washed into the cistern with the 
first part of the shower and make the water extremely 
filthy. A cistern becomes in many cases a collection 
of exceedingly injurious filth, which renders the water 
wholly unfit for drink, and dangerously infects the milk. 
To avoid this, an arrangement is attached to the lead- 
ing pipe from the roof, having two connecting pipes, one 
to receive the first flow from the roof, and one to take 
the clean water after the roof is washed off. These two 



1^*2 THE dairyman's MAN"UAL. 

pipes are pivoted upon a supporting arm which holds them 
m position to receive the water from the leader. When not 
in use the waste pipe is set under the leader and is a little 
over- balanced by the cistern pipe. A small metal box is 
fitted to the waste pipe and is connected with it by a 
small orifice, through which water enters slowly when 
the rain is pouring from the roof. This box becomes 
filled in a sufficient space of time for the ram to wash off 
the roof, and the weight of it then over-balances the 
cistern pipe, which is brought under the leader and 
conveys the flow into the cistern. This is a very simple 
arrangement, and has been found to work very well, 
needing no attention except to empty the water box 
after the rain is over and let the waste pipe return to its 
place. 

Cisterns require careful construction. The best form 
is the oval or egg-shaped, as this best resists the pressure 
of the outer earth when it is empty. This form is shown 
at figure 20. The manner of construction is as follows. 
The surface soil is removed to a depth of eighteen inches 
to exclude frost in winter and heat in summer. The 
excavation is made as shown in the engraving, which is the 
shape of an egg with the upper third cut off. It should 
be eight to twelve feet deep, and seven to ten feet in di- 
ameter. The deeper the cistern the better and cheaper 
it is. If the soil is close and compact the cement may 
be laid directly upon it, and no brick lining is required. 
To do this, a large flat stone (s) is bedded in cement at 
the bottom for the workman to stand upon, and as a 
rest for the pump (p). The cement is made of water 
lime one part, and clean sharp sand three parts ; mixed 
dry first, and wetted up in small quantities as required, 
and can be used before it sets hard. The cement is laid 
about an inch thick (tv). When the bottom is covered, 
a layer is put around the wall about a foot high, and as 
it sets very quickly, as soon as one strip is laid another 



\VATi:R SUPPLY. 



123 



may be put on above it, until the whole is completed. 
In digging, a shoulder a foot in width is made on the 
top of the sub'Soil eighteen inches deep, to rest the beams 
upon. This is also covered with cement, and the beams 
are laid on, and the S23aces between them on the shoulder 
are filled in with stone, or brick, and cement, to the 
upper level, upon which the floor rests. A strong floor 
of four-mch plank, doubled, with the joints broken, is 




Fig. 20.— EAIN-WATER CISTERN. 

laid upon the beams and covered with a coat of the cement 
to exclude surface water ; and this floor is then covered 
with earth and sodded over, or a platform is built over 
it to stand upon. A manhole (m) should be made in the 
cover large enough for a person to go down when it is 
necessary to clean out the cistern, and this is brought up 
a little above the platform and. fitted with a tight cover, 
kept locked, to avoid danger of children falling in. The 
pipe {e) conveys the water from the roof; but it is best 



124 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

to have it enter under the shoulder, where it is out of 
the way. 

A force pump should always be chosen for the cistern, 
so that in case of need a hose may be attached and the 
water carried where it may be wanted, to a distant 
trough, or to any part of the yard or stables. 

When the soil is sandy, or loose gravel, the cistern 
should be lined with hard bricks laid lengthwise so as to 
make a wall four inches thick. The floor should be of 
cement, and no bricks except a few in the center will be 
required.^ The bricks should be thoroughly wetted be- 
fore they are used. The- cement should be spread all 
•over the surface of the brick so as to completely fill the 
spaces, and the outside of the wall should be plastered as 
it goes up. Earth should be packed firmly against the 
wall outside to give a backing which will resist the pressure 
of the water. This is an important i3oiut, and should 
not be forgotten. When the desired hight is reached 
the bricks are inclined gradually to form the shoulder for 
the arch, and the wall is then drawn in towards the middle; 
leaving a manhole in the center. This is covered with a 
large flagstone. The inside of the cistern is covered 
with a wash coat of clear cement. 

The cost will depend upon its size and the material 
selected. The expense of excavation may be estimated 
at twenty-five cents for a cubic yard, or one cent per cubic 
foot. To ascertain the length of wall around a cistern 
multiply the diameter by three and one-fifth. Thus 
one eight feet in diameter will be over twenty-five feet 
around. Fourteen bricks will lay one square foot of 
wall, eight inches, or one brick thick ; twenty-five will 
lay a square foot, twelve inches, or a brick and one-half 
thick. Thus for every foot in hight, an eight-foot cistern 
will require 350 bricks, if the wall is one brick length ■ 
wise thick, or 180 if it is a half brick thick. For a smull 
cistern the bricks may be laid in this manner, but those 



WATER SUPPLY. 125 

over six or eight feet in diameter slioiild have an eight- 
inch wall to resist the outside pressure, especially if the 
soil is of grayel or sand. To lay 1,000 bricks two bar- 
rels of cement will be required, if used clear ; but there 
may be one, or two, or even three barrels of sand used to 
one of cement, without danger of weakening the wall. 
Where expense is no object as compared with durability, 
we would use clear cement. Eosendale (American) ce- 
ment is good enough for all purposes. 

To ascertain the contents of a cistern the diameter is 
multiplied by itself, or squared, and this product is mul- 
tiplied by . 7854. It will be near enough to take three- 
quarters of the product in feet and multiply this by the 
depth in feet. This gives the number of cubic feet of 
water in the cistern. A cubic foot of water is equal to 
seven and a half gallons. Thus in figuring for a cistern 
the desired size may soon be ascertained. By doub- 
ling the diameter, the contents are increased fourfold. 
Thus a round cistern four feet in diameter will hold a 
little over three barrels for every foot in depth; if eight 
feet in diameter, it will hold twelve and one-half barrels 
for every foot ; but if twelve feet in diameter, it will hold 
nine times as much; for if the diameter is enlarged three 
times, the contents are increased three times three, or 
nine times, and if enlarged four times, or to sixteen feet, 
the cistern will hold four times four, or sixteen times as 
much water for every foot in depth. Thus a great ad- 
vantage is gained by making the cistern as wide as pos- 
sible. The following table will be found useful for 
reference: 

Contents of a round cistern for every foot in depth of 

4 feet in diameter = 93 gallons = SVio bbls. 

6 " '' = 212 '* =7 " 

8 " " = 375 " = 12i " 

10 " " = 588 " = 19i ♦* 

12 '* " - 848 " =28 " ■ 

X6 " " ;= 1500 " =50 « 



126 THE DAIRYMAIn"'S MANUAL. 

A cistern lined with cement only, and finished com- 
pletely, eight feet in diameter and ten feet deep, of the 
form shown in the engraving on page 123, will cost about 
forfcy dollars, and will hold 100 barrels. 

In arranging for the water supply for the stock a suf- 
ficiency of- water troughs should be provided, and as 
many as will give ample opportunities for all the cows to 
drink without molestation from the master cows of the- 
herd. Four troughs are not too many for twelve or 
fifteen cows, and these should be scattered widely apart, 
or be so protected that one ill-natured animal may not 
keep guard over them all. An excellent arrangement is 
to have an octagonal frame with a trough on each side, 
or one trough all around it, so that every cow may have 
a chance to get to the water. 

The water from the troughs should be carried off, to 
avoid ice around them in the winter, and some provision 
should be made to empty the troughs to prevent the 
accumulation of ice at that season. Where it is practi- 
cable, a constant flow of water in the troughs in the sum- 
mer is desirable, and for this purpose, where there is a run- 
ning stream, a water ram may be used, or a windmill with 
a reservoir of sufficient capacity to supply all the reqtiire- 
ments both of the cattle and the dairy work. 

The newly-introduced rustless iron pipe is a great con- 
venience. Lead pipe is exceedingly objectionable on 
account of the danger of poisoning by solution of the 
lead by the carbonic acid almost always contained in 
water. Iron pipe rusts rapidly from the same cause, and 
is soon useless. The rustless pipe is the plain iron pipe 
subjected to a process by which the inner and outer sur- 
faces are changed to magnetic oxide, which is not acted 
upon by water, or any acids or alkalies ; not even boiling 
nitric acid affects it. This renders the pipe practically 
unchangeable and indestructible. A pipe which brings 
water several hundred feet from a spring, and which has 



FOODS FOR USE IK THE DAIRY. 127 

been in use and partly exposed to the air near the sur- 
face of the soil for more than a year, is now as bright as 
when laid, and does not affect the taste of the water in 
the least. 

CHAPTER XL 
FOODS FOR USE IN THE DAIRY. 

The subject of foods for use in the dairy is one of the 
highest importance to the dairyman. If the cow is a 
machine for manufacturing raw materials — the food — 
into finished products — milk, butter, and cheese — then 
it follows that while the character of the machine and 
its ability to do its work properly are of first importance, 
the character of the materials worked up is of but very 
little less importance ; for no machine, however good it 
may be, can do good work with poor materials. '^ Out of 
nothing, nothing comes ;" and if the food is deficient in 
the elements required to make the desired products — the 
nitrogenous elements to make pp the caseine, the fat to 
make the butter, the carbo-hydrates to make the sugar, 
and the mineral matter to furnish the salts — the cow, no 
matter how excellent an animal she may be, cannot 
supply the deficiencies. 

The dairyman should therefore be an expert on the 
subject of food&. He should know of what elements 
the animal itself consists, what are required to support 
the animal in a full condition of health and vigor, and 
of what elements milk of the best quality is composed. 
This furnishes the key to the most important problem, 
^^How should a cow be fed to procure from her the 
largest quantity of the best product at the least cost? " 
Upon the proper solution of this problem the profits of 
the dairyman depend. 

An animal requires a certain quantity of three ele- 
mentary kinds of nutriment to support it in vigorous 



128 THE l)ATRTMAN''S MANUAL. 

life, without loss of substance or gain in weight. This 
is called the normal maintenance ration, and consists 
of a class of substances : one known as nitrogenous or 
albuminoids ; another known as carbonaceous or carbo- 
hydrates, including oils or fats (which are really carbo- 
hydrates); and, lastly, one consisting of mineral matters 
or salts, including phosphate of lime, chloride of sodium 
or salt, potash, magnesia, a little iron, and. a very small 
quantity of other mineral matter. To supply the nat- 
ural requirements of the animal for the restoration of 
worn-out tissue and for the support of the animal heat and 
of respiration, there are needed, for every 1,000 pounds 
of live weight of an animal, about three-quarters of a 
pound of nitrogenous substances, eight pounds of the 
carbonaceous substances, one-sixth of a pound of fat, 
and an insignificant quantity, more or less, of the various 
salts. These are contained in about twenty pounds of 
good hay. A certain quantity of these are digested and 
assimilated, and enter into the structure of the animal ; 
the indigestible portion and the surplus unavoidably 
given, from the nature of the foods at our command, are 
ejected from the animal and form manure. This latter 
portion of the food and its disposal being of great im- 
portance will be more fully treated of further on, and 
after the subject of alimentation for support and produc- 
tion of milk has been disposed of. j 

After the natural wants of the animals are supplied, 
the dairyman's business is to furnish his cows with as 
much material as they can healthfully turn into milk 
and cream. Then the question occurs. Of what do these 
substances consist ? This is simply answered by saying 
that milk has almost precisely the same composition as 
an animal has, and that milk contains every element re- 
Quired to support an animal. But the dairyman wants 
to put an excessK)f fat in the milk, of which he can make 
butter and rich cheese, Hence the feeding of a cow for 



FOODS FOR USE IK THE DAIRY. 



129 



dairy product requires an increased quantity of the very 
same elements that are needed for the support of an 
animal, with as much more fat as the cow can be pos- 
sibly made to turn to profitable use healthfully. 

The foods used in the dairy are classed, as regards 
their elements, as albuminoids, carbo-hydrates, fat and 
ash. Fiber or cellular tissue is also included, because 
this is in part digestible, and no doubt that part which 
is digested may go to help support the animal or form 
useful products. The following list includes all the 
foods used in the dairy, and to each one is appended the 
percentage of digestible matters of the above-mentioned 
classes contained in it. Hay and green fodder have 
already been enumerated in a previous chapter. 

Composition of Some Foods Used in the Dairy. Per Cent 
OF Digestible Matter. 



Oats ground 

Corn .ground 

Pea meal 

Cow peas 

Sweet potatoes 

Yams : 

Cotton seed (whole) 

Acorns (fresh) 

Chestnuts (fresh) 

Pumpkins 

"Wheat bran 

Wheat middlings 

Rye bran.-- ^ 

Pea meal bran - 

Hominy chop 

Wheat starch waste 

Corn starch or glucose meal ..■. 

Bre wers ' grains (fresh) 

Malt sprouts 

Rice meal 

Palm-nut cake 

Palm-nut, extracted 

Linseed oil meal, extracted 

Cotton seed meul, without hulls 

Corn cobs 

Milk........ 



O 

S 

1 


1^ 


Fat. 


9.0 


43.4 


4.7 


8.4 


60.6 


4.8 


20.2 


54.4 


1.7 


19.4 


49.6 


1.1 


0.9 


28.0 


0.3 


2,1 


25.9 


0.2 


17.1 


14.7 


27.3 


2.0 


30.9 


1.5 


3.4 


35.7 


1.3 


0.4 


7.1 


0.1 


10.0 


48.5 


3.1 


8.9 


54.8 


2.6 


10.6 


50.0 


2.0 


9.2 


45.8 


1.2 


10.13 


50.20 


7.6 


3.7 


15.1 


1.8 


3.2 


19.3 


18 


4.8 


11.3 


1.2 


20.8 


43.7 


0.9 


8.6 


47.2 


8.8 


12.8 


56.2 


14.0 


17.6 


60.4 


3.1 


27.8 


33.9 


2.1 


33.2 


17.6 


16.2 


0.6 


41.7 


0.4 


3.2 


5.0 


4.5 



ts 



0,98 
1.11 
1.44 
1.33 
0.30 
0.33 
2.08 
0.43 
0.52 
0.08 
1.01 
1.00 
1.00 
0.86 
1.17 
0.37 
0.39 
0.36 
1.33 
1.16 
1.66 
1.44 
1.61 
2.30 
0,41 
0.34 



130 THE dairyman's mai^ual. 

The column of money values represents the food value 
of these substances as compared with ordinary meadow 
hay at sixty-four cents per 100 pounds, or 812.80 per 
ton, and with the very best hay at $1.00 per 100 pounds 
or $20.00 per ton. 

It should be explained that these values are taken 
from the basis of the chemical composition of the sub- 
stances ; and, as a means of comparison, the analysis and 
comparative value of corn cobs are given, which on this 
basis would seem to show them to be worth forty-one 
cents per 100 pounds. Now no dairyman in his right 
mind and with any experience would purchase corn cobs 
for 18.20 per ton. Consequently, it is hardly necessary 
to say that the above figures are given for what they are 
worth only, as showing the actual composition of the 
substances mentioned, and to be used in the light of 
common sense, reason and experience, and as compara- 
tive only. 

The experienced feeder of cattle will not need any sug- 
gestions in regard to the use of these foods ; he will be 
able to select those which contain the elements he wants, 
and wliich are to be procured for the least money. For 
the benefit and use of other feeders and young dairymen 
the following remarks upon these foods may be made. 

For the maintenance of an animal there is required, for 
each 1,000 pounds of live weight, a daily ration of twenty 
pounds of the best hay, which contains seventeen and a 
half pounds of dry substance, which should consist of 
0.7 of a pound of albuminoids, eight pounds of carbo- 
hydrates, and 0.15 of a pound of fat, or 8.85 (eight and 
three-quarters pounds in round numbers) of digestible 
nutritive substance. This consists of nearly twelve parts 
of carbonaceous matters for the support of respiration 
and of the vital heat, to one part of nitrogenous matter 
for the repair of the muscular tissue worn out. For a 
cow in ordinary milk there is required twenty -four 



FOODS FOE USE IIT THE DAIEY. 131 

pounds of dry substance free from all moisture, or about 
thirty pounds of the best hay, containing two and a half 
pounds of albuminoids, sixty-two and a half pounds of 
carbo-hydrates, and 0.40 of a pound of fat ; equaling 
15.40 pounds of nutritive substance, giving the pro- 
portion of nearly five and a half pounds of carbonaceous 
matter to one pound of nitrogenous. This is precisely 
the ratio required for a young growing animal, and ac- 
cords with the fact that milk is a perfect food in every 
respect for the maintenance of life and for vigorous 
growth. By reference to the last line in the above table 
it is seen that when the fat is multiplied by two and a 
half, to equalize it in estimated value with the carbo- 
hydrates, there are sixteen parts of these substances to 
3. -2 of nitrogenous ; thus making the ratio of five of the 
former to one of the latter. 

The twenty-four pounds of dry nutritive matter are 
contained in thirty pounds of the best young clover 
hay; and this quantity of hay, or an equivalent of grass, 
is taken as the standard food for a cow in full milk. 
Of this thirty pounds there are twenty-three diges- 
tible, consisting of 3.21 pounds of albuminoids, 11.28 
pounds of carbo-hydrates, and 0.63 of a pound of 
fat. This subject is merely used in this chapter as 
preliminary to the following remarks and a fuller ref- 
erence to it in the succeeding chapter. We now pro- 
ceed to consider seriatim the list of foods mentioned 
in the table, in reference to their use and adaptability 
for the dairy, and especially in regard to their value for 
the production of milk and their healthfulness. In this 
consideration the author will give the results of his 
practical experience during many years' work in the 
dairy, helped by a large number of carefully-made ex- 
periments and a study of the literature of the subject. 

Oats Grocnd are a costly food for the production of 
milk, because of the large proportion of husk they con- 



132 THE DAIRTMAN-'S MANUAL. 

tain, but when they can be purchased cheaply, as com- 
pared with other foods, tliey are especially yaluable for 
the manurial elements in them. A reference to the 
table given in the next chapter will show that 1,000 
pounds of oats contain considerable potash and phos- 
phoric acid, and hence may at times be used on this 
account. But as there are other foods which are much 
more valuabJe in this respect, oats have been discarded 
from the food list in use in the author's dairy. When they 
were used as a test in equal quantities with corn meal, the 
butter was of very light color and inferior quality. 

Corn is the standard food grain of the United States, 
and fortunately is most excellent for feeding. It is most 
healthful in its effect when fed in a proper proportion 
with other foods ; and, unless given in unusual and inju- 
dicious excess, never injuriously affects the milk glands. 
The greater part of the fat is in the husk and germ, and 
is retained in the waste product of the hominy mills 
which separate the starchy kernel from these parts of 
the grain. Consequently, the refuse of this manufac- 
ture, known as "hominy chop," would be worth more 
for feeding to cows than the corn itself, if the husk were 
all digestible. But in a long course of feeding corn meal 
we have found the fine bolted yellow meal to give better 
results than any other form in which corn has been used. 
This will be more fully explained hereafter. 

Peas have been found an exceedingly effective food 
for producing milk. In the feeding test of a noted 
Jersey cow, in which an average of seven pounds of but- 
ter daily was given for a week, sixteen pounds of pea 
meal were fed per day, with sixteen pounds of oat meal 
and twenty-four pounds of corn meal. Excellent pasture 
was also provided. This feed would supply an enormous 
excess of nutritive elements above those required for 
maintenance, giving four and a half times as much al- 



FOODS FOR USE IK THE DAIRY. 133 

buminoids, three times as mucli carbo-hydrates, and 
eight times as much fat as would be required for a cow 
in ordinary milk. No doubt, if a cow can digest suffi- 
cient food of the right kind, oil for instance, a kind of 
butter might be produced w4iich would far exceed the 
enormous product above claimed for the Jersey cow. In 
such a case a cow would act as a filter, and merely separ- 
ate the fats from the food and pass it through the udder. 
There could be no chemical change in the albuminoids 
or the carbo-hydrates into fat, as is effected in the or- 
dinary feeding of dairy cows, for the system of the cow 
is unable to do so much work. The effect of the pea 
meal in this case was probably due to its effect in en- 
abling the cow to digest the large quantity of corn and 
grass Avhich was consumed. This effect of some foods is 
of great importance, and will be treated of at length in 
the next chapter. Pea meal seems to exert a greater 
effect in this direction than any other food. 

Cow Peas, being a Southern product, as well as the 
three foods which follow in the list, and as Southern 
cows consume a large quantity of mast in the forest 
ranges, the value of all these substances are worthy of 
study and experiment in Southern dairies. Sweet pota- 
toes and yams furnish most valuable foods for winter 
feeding in the South, where dairying offers exceedingly 
favorable opportunities to experienced and enterprising 
farmers. 

Wheat Brak and the husks of grain generally are of 
great value for feeding, chiefly for their nitrogenous ele- 
ments and the manurial value of their mineral constit- 
uents. Of these waste products, brewers' grains and 
starch or glucose meal are worth special note, because of 
the severe denunciations made against them by some 
persons. No doubt in some cases the objections were 
well founded, and there has been fault on the part of 



134 THE DAIRYMAI^^'S MANUAL. 

the dairymen who have used them in an improper man- 
ner. These moist and highly nitrogenous substances 
soon ferment and putrefy, and when putrefactive decom- 
position begins, the odor exhaled is exceedingly strong 
and offensive, chiefly on account of the sulphur com- 
pounds formed. If these foods are used in this condition 
in a dairy, this odor would almost certainly affect the 
milk, and would be found concentrated in condensed 
milk and in butter. But if used in a fresh and sweet 
condition, there is no reason whatever for objection 
to them. They are then wholesome, nutritious, clean, 
easily digested, and are usually cheap, and the milk 
produced from them is of the very best quality. It is 
not the use of these foods but the abuse of them which 
is objectionable. Hence, no dairyman need hesitate to 
use any of these foods if care is taken to keep them 
sweet. They may be preserved in a silo perfectly well 
during the winter, and for a short time in casks or tight 
boxes, if well rammed down. 

Malt Sprouts are the roots and sprouts of barley 
germinated in the process of malting. The nitrogen is 
in the form of albumen and gluten, and the carbo- 
hydrates consist chiefly of sugar. They are seen to be 
exceedingly rich in albuminoids, and hence are a very 
valuable food for the production of milk. We have fed 
tons of them to cows kept for milk alone, but do not 
favor them for use in a butter dairy. The milk made 
from them has a rich sweet taste, and the sugar in it is 
in excess of the average. Hence it is apt to sour quickly, 
unless very carefully cooled and kept. The market price 
of them is much less than the actual feeding value. We 
have bought them for $8 per ton, while the estimated 
feedmg value is $26.50. The practice while feeding 
them in the author's dairy was to steep them in water 
for twelve hours and pour the thick slop thus made upon 
the cut hay, and then mix the ration of meal with the 



FOODS FOR USE liT THE DAIRY. 135 

feed. The sweetness of the sprouts makes this feed ex- 
ceedingly palatable, and cows thus fed consumed con- 
siderably more, with a corresponding yield of milk of the 
best quality, than with the same food without this addi- 
tion. As the sprouts are light and very dry — a bushel 
weighing only eight pounds — and are quite sweet, and 
consequently are greedily eaten, they should never be fed 
alone and dry, as they absorb a very large quantity of 
water and swell proportionately; hence may be injurious 
to cows eating them in this condition. 

Rice Meal appears by its analysis to be a very rich 
food, but either for milk or butter we never found it to 
be worth its exceedingly high cost, viz., thirty dollars 
per ton. We doubt very much the quantity of fat al- 
leged by the analyses to be contained in this food. The 
high price of this waste of the rice mills is said to be due 
to the demand for it as an adulterant of cheap flour, 
and other similar purposes. It would be a useful food 
for horses if procured at twenty dollars per ton, but is 
not a desirable dairy food. 

Palm Nut Meal, in our experiments, proved to be the 
most productive food for butter. It costs thirty dollars 
per ton, which is not profitable to the dairyman, and it 
is difficult to procure. In an analysis of a lot purchased 
by the author, the oil was found to amount to eighteen 
per cent, and was of a very high yellow color. If, as I 
there is reason to believe, oils in the food are assimilated 
and pass into the milk without change in the digestive 
process, the fine bland flavor and rich color of palm oil 
ought to make this meal an excellent food. The cows 
disliked it, and some wholly refused it. One cow in our 
herd which took it readily and ate six pounds per day, 
increased in the butter yield from nine pounds weekly to 
twelve "and a half. It is an unusual article on the mar- 
kets and not easy to procure, otherwise we should prefer 
it to cotton-seed meal at the same price. 



136 THE dairyman's makual. 

LiN'SEED Oil Meal is now made by what is known as 
the new process, that of extracting the oil by means of 
benzine or naphtha, by which the oil is practically all 
removed from the seed. The old process of pressure 
between heated plates left eleven to fourteen per cent 
of oil in the residue. As linseed oil has a laxative and 
most excellent effect upon the digestive organs, the old 
process meal was a useful food for fattening cattle, but 
was not a desirable food for dairy cows on account of the 
result on the butter, which was white, soft, greasy, and 
of a flat oily flavor. The new process meal is free from 
some of the objectionable features of the old process meal, 
and to some extent is useful in dairies, but after frequent 
attempts to use it with satisfaction we abandoned it in 
favor of cotton seed meal. At thirty dollars per ton — its 
present value— it is much dearer than several other foods 
in the above list which are preferable in other ways as 
well as for their cheapness. 

Cotton" Seed Meal, when used in moderation, is a very 
useful food for dairy cows. It is the reverse of laxative, 
and tends rather to costiveness. This, however, gives 
it an especial value when cows are upon grass, or when it 
is mixed with bran. When it was first introduced in the 
Northern States as a food for cows — and the author was 
the first to test it in his dairy, twelve years or more ago — it 
was sold at eighteen dollars per ton, and was an exceed- 
ingly cheap food. Since then it has become widely pop- 
ular, and has advanced in value fifty per cent. Still, for 
the nutriment it contains, it is cheap, being valued 
for its nutritive elements at forty-six dollars per ton, as 
compared with the best- clover hay at twenty dollars per 
ton. It is very rich in nitrogenous substances, and is 
consequently an unsafe food for cows if fed to excess. 
The cotton plant possesses some very powerful medicinal 
qualities. The root produces abortion, and the seed cer- 
tainly has some of the same active effect upon the uterus. 



FOODS FOR USE liT THE DAIRY. 137 

The meal has a decidedly inflammatory effect on the milk 
glands, and therefore is to be used only in very moderate 
quantities. The author has fed it to cows from four 
pounds daily down to one pound, and while feeding two 
liounds a day, with twice as much bran and corn meal, the 
butter product of a cow experimented upon ran up to two 
pounds per day ; when four pounds daily was fed, with 
the same quantity of corn meal and bran, the yield of 
butter Avas only 1.83 pounds per day for a few days, when 
an attack of garget was brought on, and for fourteen 
days afterwards the yield was less than a pound, (See 
chapter on Feeding.) As this result happened frequently 
with other, cows in the dairy, while hired men could 
scarcely be restrained from using too much of it, and a 
fine litter of Berkshire pigs were sacrificed to this temp- 
tation to feed the meal to excess, its use was discarded. 
With one pound only, used with twice the quantity of 
corn meal and bran for a single ration, cotton seed meal 
may be used safely ; but as any excess over that is apt to 
be injurious, it is advisable to mix the feed in bulk, so 
that the ration cannot be exceeded by any accident. 
This meal gives a high color, great solidity, a fine, waxy 
texture, and a rich nutty flavor to the butter. The latter 
fact seems to corroborate the belief that the oils of the 
food really go into the milk unchanged, through the 
digestive organs, in wdiich they are emulsified. 

As the digestibility of a food is really the measure of 
its value, and the analyses above given have no reference 
to this point, it is a most important part of the dairy- 
man's business to make Careful tests in his dairy of the 
effects of food in regard to the quantity and quality of 
the product. Animals differ very much in respect of 
their digestive ability. Some cows will make a very fair 
profit from the same food upon wdiich other cows will 
make a serious loss ; and these results, vital to the 
interests of the owner, can only be ascertained by most 



138 THE DAIRYMAK^S MAKtTAli. 

careful and repeated tests. While all the facts given in 
this work are vouched for by the author, when related as 
his own personal experience, and may, therefore, be taken 
as a guide by the reader, yet this guidance can only be 
general and not specific in its nature, and it may not 
answer in every case. A noted and most successful 
breeder of fine dairy cows was apt to say to an intending 
purchaser : ^* This cow has done, is doing, and will do, 
with me, thus and so ; but I cannot guaranty that she 
will do the same with you or any other man. If she is 
managed as I have been in the habit of doing, she will 
probably do as she has done ; but I cannot promise any- 
thing after she leaves my hands." The author feels 
much the sam.e way in regard to the results obtained in 
his dairy. He has had twenty-five years' experience in 
feeding cows and in practical dairy work; obtained a 
scientific education, in which animal physiology and 
medicine bore the greater share ; and has followed dairy- 
ing in preference to any other pursuit, because it was a 
work of pleasure and a favorite object for study and ex- 
periment. The results which were reached have been 
carefully noted, after repeated observations and tests ; 
and while, therefore, every confidence may be given to 
what is written in this work, yet every dairyman should 
make tests for himself as an important part of his busi- 
ness, lest difference in circumstances might mislead. 
This is for his own interests and conducive to his own 
profit. 

Every cow eats, and there is not much difference in 
the consumptive ability of good and poor cows. To feed 
a cow costs at least twenty-five cents daily, and the labor 
costs ten cents more. If a cow then makes one pound 
of butter per day, and the butter is sold for thirty-five 
cents, the manure left and the calf are the only sources 
of profit. If a cow makes ten pounds of butter a week 
there is a gain of seventeen cents per day, a very satis- 



POODS FOR USE IN^ THE DAIRY. 1S9 

factory profit. But if the cow makes but half a pound 
there is a loss of this sum, which is ruinous. It is there- 
fore indispensable that the dairyman should test his cows 
very carefully, and know the actual product of each, 
^'he tests made are — first, for milk and cream ; second, 
for butter ; third, for quality of the butter ; and, fourth, 
for feeding. It is clear that all these must be included m 
any test to determine the value of the animal. Even if no 
more than ten cows are kept, such tests should be made. 
A test is wholly useless unless it is based on certainties 
and made with precise accuracy. Such tests are as fully 
scientific as if made by a professor in an experiment 
station, for science is no more than exact truth of which 
the reasons and results are ascertained, and which can, 
therefore, be made the basis for establishing principles 
upon. Any intelligent farmer can do this for himself in 
his dairy. Indeed no one else can do it for him, for 
milk varies in character, and cream even is equally 
various ; while the cows and the results of feeding differ 
so much that no certain rule can be laid down from the 
results reached in any one case to determine another. 
First, then, the milk of each cow is to be weighed. 
This is very little trouble. A spring balance hung in the 
stable is used to weigh the pail with each cow's milk in 
it separately. That the person -who does the weighing, 
if the master is not there, shall make no mistake, the gross 
weight is taken and marked down by each milker, on a 
paper pad hung in the stable with a pencil attached to it. 
If the owner is there — and he should be to look after his 
business, which otherwise will not look after him — he 
should do the weighing and marking down, and then 
he may take down the net weight of the milk, deducting 
the known weight of the pail. In our dairy every milk 
pail used was of precisely the same weight, and made so 
purposely by the addition of solder on the bottom inside. 
A twelve-quart pail of good tin, with a cover over half of 



140 THE DAFflYMAN^S MANUAL. 

it, and a ring of zinc plate around the bottom to prevent 
wearing, will weigh three pounds, or can be made to do 
so by the addition of some solder. Then it is quite a 
simple matter to get the exact weight of the milk of 
each cow every day. And it is best to do this constantly 
as a rule, for it will be very useful in discovering any- 
thing that may have gone wrong with a cow, and gives 
an immediate opportunity of rectifying it. The weights 
of the milk are set down in this way, a separate pad 
being hung behind each cow and having its name written 
upon it. In our experience the yields of milk given by 
the cows, when regularly fed and systematically managed, 
differ so little from day to day, even in unusual changes 
of weather, that each pad easily distinguishes the partic- 
ular cow to which it belongs. The weights are taken to 
half pounds, which is near enough for all purposes. 

At stated times, say on a special day in the week, a 
portion of the cow's milk is dipped up from the pail into 
a cream gauge and left to stand for the cream to rise. 
The cream gauges are ranged in a frame made like a 
narrow box having no sides and a handle upon the top 
to carry it by. The gauges are set in this box so that 
they can be carried easily to the milk-house when they 
are filled, and each cow's name is written over the place 
in the frame where the gauge is set. The proportion of 
cream is then seen under precisely the same circum- 
stances, and, of course, is an accurate test of the relative 
cream value of each cow's milk. 

The butter test is made in a small churn, that used in 
our dairy being the smallest sized Blanchard churn, 
easily making as little as a pound of butter at one time. 
The particular cow's milk is kept separate and set by 
itself, and the cream is skimmed precisely the same as 
from the other milk, and is kept the same as the other 
cream, except that more milk is mixed with it to helj) in 
the churning. The churning is done under the same 



FOODS FOR USE IK THE DAIRY. 141 

conditions as the general churning, and this test deter- 
mines Dot only the quality of the milk and the butter, 
but the time occupied in the churning, which is quite 
important. The butter made is accurately weighed, and 
compared with the quality of the milk, and that of the 
cream known from the test in the per cent glass. The 
buttermilk is also tested by the ether test, which is by 
using a long test-tube marked with equal spaces — tenths 
of an inch — and putting into it a certain quantity of but- 
termilk, then a small quantity of ether, and shaking the 
tube for a few minutes, after which it is set to rest, and 
any butter in it appears on the top dissolved in the ether. 
The tube is set in a warm place and the ether evapo- 
rates quite quickly, leaving a film of butter on the butter- 
milk. This test is not of much practii^al importance, be- 
cause a small quantity of butter will remain in the but- 
termilk in spite of the best churning; but it serves to 
show that some milk leaves more butter in the butter- 
milk than others. But when all the different milks are 
mixed, the butter which escapes from one milk may be 
caught and gathered by the other milk, and while the 
butter globules of one cow's milk are so small that some 
will be lost when her cream is churned alone, they are 
picked up by the larger globules of other milks. This 
fact is proved by the use of a microscope, which shows 
clearly how the milk of various cows differs in this re- 
spect. The quality of the butter is learned by taste and 
by the melting point, which indicates its hardness and 
firmness. This is an important test, because at times the 
cream of some cows varies in character, and especially 
as the cow approaches a new calving the flavor becomes 
quite distinct and will affect the butter of other cows. 

The feeding test is the most interesting and soon 
gives the dairyman a very clear idea of the value of his 
cows. The food is. changed in quantity — decreased or 
increased— and the result is noted by the previously de- 



142 THE DAIRYMA.^'S MANUAL. 

scribed tests. In our dairy we have found an increase of 
food at times to reduce the yield of milk and a decreuso 
to have the opposite result. One specially determined 
fact, however, was clearly proved by some hundreds of 
tests, and this was that the food had a most important 
result upon the product of butter. This was denied by 
the Director of the New York State Experiment Station 
at the time, but his later tests fully corroborated the ac- 
curacy of our statement, which has been fully accepted 
by practical dairymen. Hence, foods rich in fatty mat- 
ter are the best for the product of butter, and the choice 
of those foods which are proved by careful tests made in 
this manner, in each j^articular dairy, is one of the most 
important parts of the business of dairying. 

CoNDiMEi^TAL Foods are those substances which are 
used to supply certain requirements of the system, but 
are supposed to be only supplementary to the ordinary 
foods. Tlie term food includes any substance used for the 
nutrition of animals, and we must also include water, for 
seventy-five per cent of the body of an animal consists 
of this fluid, and salt as well, for this substance enters 
largely into the composition of an animal. Tlie follow- 
ing table gives' the quantity of salt (sodium chloride) con- 
tained in the various parts and secretions of an animal : 

SALT CONTAIXED I:N^ AN ANIMAL. 

In 150 pounds of live weight 4 pounds 163 grains. 

In the blood 3.29 parts in 1,000 

In the female blood 3.90 parts in 1,000 

In the ash of blood 54.76 parts in 100 

In the liquor sanguinis 6.98 parts in 1,000 

In the pulmonary mucous 5.82 parts in 1,000 

In the sebaceous matter of the skin (oily 



secretion) -37.00 parts 

In the perspiration - - - 2.23 parts 

In the secretion of the eve (tears) 13.00 parts 

In the saliva of the mouth .84 parts 

In the saliva of parotid glands - 3.06 parts 

In the gastiic fluid -- 1.70 parts 

In the pancreatic fluid •• - 7.36 parts 

In the bile (of the ox) - .15.00 parts 

In the lymph ...- 5.00 parts 

In the bones of an ox 3.45 parts 



n 1.000 
n 1,000 
n 1.000 
n 1,000 
n 1,000 
n 1,000 
n 1,000 
n 1,000 
n 1,000 
n 100 



lothebonesof a man ..--.. ..^i. .--... 1.20 parts in 100 



FOODS FOE USE IN THE DAIRY. 143 

The quantity of the above-named fluids secreted every 
twenty-four hours is very large; in a man of 140 pounds' 
weight the amount is as follows : 



Ihunds. 

Saliva ..- 3.88 

Gastric fluid... 14.00 

Bile 2.42 

Total 25.03 



Ibiinds. 

Pancreatic fluid 1;87 

Lymph.. : 3.86 



The quantity secreted by a cow is even larger in pro- 
portion to its greater weight. 

These figures indicate and even prove that salt is a 
most indispensable article of food. The quantity se- 
creted by a horse or an ox, in which animals these fluids 
are produced more copiously than in any others, has not 
been determined, for obvious reasons, but it must be 
several times larger than the human secretions. All 
this goes to show the absolute and indispensable neces- 
sity for an adequate supply of salt as food — not as a cour 
diment or a relish to the food, but as necessary aliment, 
without which animals cannot perform their functions 
of digestion and nutrition, and make a healthful and 
satisfactory growth. 

But it is also proper to make some computation of the 
discharge of this substance from the system in the waste 
matter excreted. The animal system is in constant 
course of destruction and renewal. A man of one hun- 
dred and forty pounds' weight discharges in all the 
excreted matter seven and one-quarter pounds every 
twent3^-four hours, that is, the whole body requires com- 
plete renewal every twenty days, and an absorption of 
seven and one-quarter pounds daily of various matters. 
An ox or a horse performing the same vital functions re- 
quires a proportionate supply to make up its proportion- 
ate waste. So that as a large quantity of salt is thrown 
off in this waste every day, an equal amount must be 
supplied to restore the loss, It has been calculated that 



144 THE DAIEYMAiS'S MAlfUAL. 

an ox or a cow requires two ounces of salt daily to re- 
plenish the system ; a horse needs one and one-half 
ounces, and a sheep one dram. This is in addition to 
that which is naturally contained io the food. 

How seldom does any farmer provide his animals with 
this indispensable article of food ? How much disorder 
of the digestive functions may be and is due to this neg- 
lect ? Nearly all the ailments of farm animals are pro- 
duced by disturbances of the digestive organs. Is it not 
just and reasonable to assume that the absence of this in- 
dispensable salt is the cause of much of this disease and 
the loss of thousands of animals for want of a necessary 
part of their nutriment. 

But salt given in excess is an acrid poison, producing 
corrosion of the gastric membranes and quick death. It 
is therefore to be given with the food in regular and safe 
proi^ortion ; or if given alone should be given daily in the 
needed quantity, as above mentioned. 

The salt barrel should be kept adjacent to the feeding 
box, and to avoid accidents by any animal trespassing 
and taking too much, the barrel should have a safe, close- 
fitting cover, or a well made bin should be used. The 
regular ration, given with each feed, should be measured 
out accurately. One ounce for each cow at each feed, or 
half a pint for fifteen cows, is the proper allowance. 
This will be equal to one pound or sixteen ounces for the 
fifteen cows. 

There are times when the appetite of the cows will fail 
from repletion, sameness of food, or other causes, which 
are removed by a change of feeding. The addition to 
the food of some agreeable flavoring will at once have a 
good effect. We once procured a barrel of molasses for 
use in the dairy, and once a week gave at first a quart of 
it to our herd of fifteen cows, mixed with the dry meal, 
a little water being added to make the mixture even. 
The zest thus_given to the food was conspicuous by this 



FOODS FOR USE IX THE DAIRY. 145 

small quantity, and it was given in larger quantities, a 
gallon to the fifteen cows, or about twelve ounces to a cow, 
in two feeds once a week. AVhile the effect on the milk 
was not apparently worth noting, the result upon the 
cows w^as quite marked, and had the molasses been given 
in the first small quantity every day it is probable that it 
would have been rejoaid with profit. 

A useful condimental food for use when the appetite 
appears weak may be made as follows : liuseed meal, 
pure, fifty pounds, brown sugar ten pounds, corn meal 
one hundred pounds, ground gentian one pound, ground 
turmeric one pound, ground ginger one-half a pound, 
caraway, anise and coriander seed one-quarter of a 
pound each, finely ground, sulphur two pounds, salt two 
pounds, cream of tartar oue-half a pound, all well mixed. 
Two pounds of this is given in place of as much corn 
meal once or twice in a week. This subject should not 
be dismissed without some remark upon improper foods, 
or more correctly, injurious substances taken with the 
foods. Much injury is sometimes done by these un- 
welcome additions to the food. ^ 

In some investigations for the ]3urpose of testing the 
effects of various foods upon animals, and the peculiari- 
ties of the functions of nutrition, it was found that the 
red color of madder roots, which were cut and mingled 
with the food, appeared after a time in the bones, which . 
became of a pink color. Fowls, pigs, and rabbits were 
experimented upon with similar results. In the pigs, after 
a continued feeding, the fat became tinged with pink, 
while no effect was found upon the flesh, j^robably from 
the difficulty of noting any change of tint, by reason of 
the sameness of the color. 

Such an experiment is not needed to add proof to the 
f[ict that food has a very great effect upon the char- 
acter of the flesh of any animal, and necessarily upon the 
milk. The flesh and fat of pigs fed upon beech mast is 



146 THE dairyman's manual. 

well known to be soft and oily, while peas-fed pork 
is firm and hard, and even more so than that made by 
feeding corn. The flesh of sheep fed upon the short 
sweet herbage of mountain pastures, and which consists 
in part of resinous plants, as heather and various other 
species of the heath family, is remarkable for its peculiar 
and agreeable flavor. The hunter easily recognizes the 
flavor of hemlock in the flesh of the northern hares, which 
feed upon it in the winter; while the spruce or swamp par- 
tridge indicates by the flavor of its flesh the various foods 
which it has subsisted upon for some time before it has 
been killed. It is the same with trout, the flesh of 
which is of a bright red when it has been taken in cold, 
clear, gravelly, or rocky streams, and of a muddy white 
when it has lived in water flowing from swamps. The 
law is general ; and it is to the differences of food in a 
great measure that the differences in the flavors of meats 
of various kinds are due. If we feed domestic fowls 
upon the food of the prairie hen, and let them roost out 
of doors in the pure air, the flesh will be vastly superior 
in flavor to that of a fowl cooped up in a confined and 
filthy yard, or fattened in a poulterer's cellar upon cheap 
and damaged grain. And if these differences are so 
noticeable in other animals, they cannot fail to exist in 
regard to cows. 

Indeed, every one knows how quickly strong-flavored 
weeds will scent and flavor butter, and it has happened 
in our own dairy that the milk of cows, in whose stable 
a heap of half-decayed frozen turnips were kept but one 
day and night, smelled so strongly as to be detected in 
the milk room immediately upon entering it, and the 
pans could be distinguished by the scent with the great- 
est ease. And yet none of the turnips had been fed ; it 
was merely the air of the stable impregnated with the 
odor which conve3^ed the scent to the milk through the 
animals' lungs and blood. 



FEEDING RATIONS, 147 

If all this is true — and we think none will question it, 
for it is unquestionable — then with what justice can a 
dairyman insist that to devour the dung from a horse 
stable Avill not harm a dairy cow, or to keep cows in 
stables reeking with filth will not infect the milk ? A 
well-known dairyman once observed of milk from such a 
stable, that ^Mt was hardly strong enough for good man- 
ure, but it might do for that purpose better than for 
food." 



CHAPTER XII. 
FEEDING RATIONS. 

When the dairyman feeds his cows he is beginning his 
work of manufacturing. He is supplying his machines 
with the raw material. "We have seen what these mate- 
rials are, and the purpose for which they are to be used; 
let us now study the character of the machines used, and 
the manner in which they may best be supplied. 

Food is given to the cow to be digested. Digestion 
consists of the mastication or grinding of the food in 
the mouth; the maceration of it in the paunch or large 
stomach ^the first and second compartments of the 
quadruple organ possessed by all ruminants ; the return 
of it in small portions — the cud — into the mouth for a 
second grinding ; the further maceration and pulping of 
it in the third stomach or maniples between the rubbing 
plates or leaves with which this part of the organ is 
furnished, and its partial solution in the true digestive 
stomach where it is subjected to the action of the gastric 
fluid. The food then passes into the intestines. It is 
in the form of a semi-fluid grayish mass, containing still 
some undissolved food. 

The undissolved portions of the food are chiefly the 
nitrogenous matters or albuminoids ; the starch has been 



148 THE DAIRY^^IAK'S MANUAL. 

dissolved and changed to sugar, and the oily part of the 
food has been worked up by the mastication and tritura- 
tion in the stomachs into an emulsion with the other 
constituents of the food. In the bowels, the food is 
subjected to the action of the bile which is poured out 
from the liver, and the fluid of the pancreas, the office 
of which is not j-et clearly established. The changes 
which are effected in the intestines are the complete 
conversion of any remaining starch into sugar ; the 
albuminoid substances are brought into the condition 
of soluble albumen, and the fats are still further divided 
and made into a more perfect emulsion. 

Digestion is then completed. The food is brought 
into contact with the absorbent vessels of the mucous 
membrane of the intestines, and the process of assimila- 
tion begins. The dissolved food and the emulsified fat 
are then absorbed by the very small capillary blood 
vessels of the mucous membrane of the stomach and in- 
testines, and pass on with the venous blood into the liver 
and lungs, where it is purified by the combustion of the 
excess of carbon by which the animal heat is sustained, 
and the purified fluid is poured into the heart and mixed 
with the arterial blood; thence carried to every extremity 
of the system it repairs the waste and adds new matter 
to the growing animal. 

The fat, in the form of an emulsion or exceedingly 
intimate mixture, in particles so fine as to be invisible, is 
absorbed directly into the circulation and is carried on 
with the blood to be deposited where the exigencies of 
the system require it. It is deposited in the tissues, or 
in masses in various parts of the bod}^, and in females, at 
and after the birth of their young, is carried in large 
part to the udder, where it is first deposited in the gland- 
ular cells of the udder, and is then mingled with the 
copious secretion known as milk. 

Thus the milk of the cow is a direct product of the 



PEEDIKG RATIONS. 140 

food, and it is probaWe that the fatty part of it is carried 
without cliange directly from the absorbent vessels of the 
intestines to the milk glands, where it is separated from 
the blood and poured into the milk ducts. This, how- 
ever, will be fully discussed hereafter. Such is the 
machinery and function of the cow in the disposal of 
the food. 

It should be obvious to the intelligent reader that the 
provision of suitable food for the cow is most important, 
both to guard against waste and to furnish a sufficient 
supply for the full and profitable employment of the 
digestive organs. For whatever there is in the food that 
cannot be assimilated is discharged from the bowels, and 
whatever is assimilated that is not required and cannot 
be healthfully disposed of by the animal, becomes a 
source of mischief and causes disease. 

Food is given to animals for three distinct purposes : 
first, for the growth of a young animal ; second, for the 
fattening of a mature animal ; third, for the production 
of milk and butter. The last of these is more particu- 
larly to our purpose. The practice of feeding for the 
dairy is a truly scientific process. The foods given must 
be chosen particularly for the end in view. 

The results of experience, properly arranged and re- 
duced to rules for practice, are as truly scientific as if they 
were evolved from the most abstruse theories. In the 
practice of feeding we are guided by two principles, viz., 
that certain products are composed of certain elements, 
and that if these elements are supplied to an animal we 
may secure the desired products. 

No dairy can be profitably worked on grass alone. 
The object of feeding any animals, especially cows, is to 
use cheap feed and make more valuable meat, milk, butter 
or cheese out of it. In this lies the skill and the profit of 
the dairyman's work. It is indispensable, then, that he 
should fully understand the nature of the feeding sub- 



150 TBiE DAIKYMAN^S MANUAL. 

stances he works with. The principles of feeding are 
these: an animal digests its food and a process of assimi- 
lation follows ; assimilation is the conversion of the di- 
gested food into blood, and then into flesh, milk, fat or 
butter. None of these products can come into existence 
unless the elements of them are given in the food. No 
food can be changed into these products unless it is 
digestible. Therefore, to produce milk and butter most 
profitably, the dairyman must choose such food as is 
the most easily digested — that contains the most of the 
elements that are required — and he must give them in 
such quantity that the cow can digest them most per- 
fectly and up to the largest quantity possible. 

A large variety of food substances are at the service 
of the dairyman, all differing in market value as well as 
feeding value, some being cheap and some dear. A com- 
parison of these foods will show how some may be pro- 
cured for less money than others, and perhaps produce 
cheaper milk and butter. 

But in choosing foods the experimental tests and chem- 
ical investigations of the German agricultural schools 
will be of much value. While animals differ individually, 
yet on the whole there is a universal law of Nature which 
controls natural operations, and the general causes being 
the same, and bound by these universal laws, the results 
are very similar. So that what happens in one herd or 
in many, as the result of feeding certain foods to cows, 
is most likely to happen to all, when the circumstances 
of the feeding are similar. Hence the method of feed- 
ing is of much importance. 

In considering this question we will assume, as the 
majority of dairymen are apt to believe, that practical 
experience is worth much more than chemical analysis 
and scientific theory, and the following results of some 
careful tests made by the writer with a Jersey cow 
which had been fed and kept as a test cow for three 



years, may be relied upon as giving an accurate value to 
the feeds mentioned ; the more so, as they have been 
confirmed by actual feeding in a dairy of fifteen cows for 
a still longer time. It is easy to trace in these figures 
the difference between the feeds given, which is really 
the test of the values. The cow was twenty-two months 
old when record began, and had calved two months pre- 
viously. She was a pure-bred Jersey, of a noted butter 
family. The feed through all the winters included five 
pounds of clover hay cut and wetted and mixed with the 
feed morning and noon, and five pounds of loose hay at 
noon. Every part of the management was the same 
every day, excepting that when there was grass, pasture 
was used instead of the hay, and the meal was given dry 
with a little fine grass : 

PRODUCT OF BUTTER, FIRST CALVING. 

Feed. 1880. Lbs. butter. Av, per day. 

2 lbs. bran | February 33,34 1.25 lbs. 

3 lbs. com meal ( March 35'/2 1.45 

6 lbs. bran au5 midlings j April 28'/2 .95 

(May 26 .84 

2 lbs. bran ( June 38^4 1.39 

3 lbs. palm nut meal' (July .36Va 1.18 

2 lbs. bran------ August 38V2 * 1.22 

2 lbs. com meal •< September . . .44 1.45 

2 lbs. cotton-seed meal ( October 393/4 1.28 

SECOND CALVING. 

1881. 

2 lbs. bran ( April, 15 days .23 V4 1.53 

2 lbs. malt sprouts -< May 52 1.70 

2 Ib's. cotton-seed meal ( June 49'/4 1.60 

4 lbs. corn meal I July, 12 days .22 1.83 

2 lbs. cotton-seed meal •< 5 days sick with garget. 

( July, 14 days .IIV2 .80 

2 lbs. bran and 8 lbs. oats and j August 45 1.45 

com meal { September - . -37 1.20 

2 lbs. bran and 3 lbs. fine bolted ( October 51 '/a 1.66 

yellow corn meal -^ November 46 1.54 

(December 471/2 1.55 

1882. 

2 lbs. bran--.- -- f January 49V4 1.59 

2 lbs. fine meal J February 48 1.81 

1 lb. cotton-seed meal 1 March - -34 1.01 

[April, 2 days-- 3V4 1.62 



152 THE DAIKYMAX'S MAKUAL. 

PRODUCT OF BUTTEE — Continued. 

THIBD CALVrNG 

rMay,16days.-33 2.00 

o - , 1 June- 51 .66. 

Same feed j^ly _ _53w^ l_-^2 

[August 61 2.00 

f September --.483/4 1-60 

2 lbs. bran and 3 lbs. yellow J October 4UV4 1-30 

meal -- ] November 43 1.40 

t December,.. -40 1.30 

1883. 
5 lbs. buckwheat bran | i^^^^^-f, f^ 

r March 23 .76 

2 lbs. bran and 3 lbs. fine yeUow J April 38\ 4 1.23 

com meal } May -41 1.33 

[June- 34 1.01 

The same feeding was continued until December 6th, 
when the cow was dried off, gi'^'ii^g in the twenty months 
from her last coming-in, OTSy^ pounds of butter. 

A few points in the above should be specially noticed. 
Every time cotton-seed meal was used the butter in- 
creased in quantity, but what was gained in this way 
was nearly all lost by the attack of garget, brought on by 
this feed. This result has been so frequent with other 
cows that the use of cotton-seed meal has been abandoned, 
excepting in quantities of not over one pound at one 
feed, and never without bran in the mixture. The 
great falling off when buckwheat bran was used is also 
worth noting. The mixture of two pounds bran and 
three pounds of fine yellow corn meal, bolted, in everj^ 
case turned out the best and cheapest feed, and made 
the finest quality of butter. It has since then been a 
standard feed, and there is no desire to change it. The 
bran used is the fine bran made at the country mill, and 
has some coarse middlings with it, and weighs eighty 
pounds to the two-busliel sack. 

The forcing of cows to a large yield by excessive feed- 
ing is a very unprofitable business. Garget is almost 
sure to come on, and this not only loses milk and butter, 
\)ut it wastes time and gives a great deal of trouble and 



FEEDIis^G RATIONS. 153 

care. The standard feed mentioned above, viz., two 
pounds of wheat bran and three pounds of fine yellow 
meal, twice a day, with fifteen pounds of hay, is quite 
sufiicient for an ordinary cow, and as much as any such 
\ cow can digest healthfully and profitably. There are 
' ^"phenomenal" cows, as there are other animals, whose 
digestive power and appetite seem to be unlimited. Any 
good cow ought to pay well for such feeding, and it is 
not giving any cow a chance to show wliat she can do if 
she is not furnished with at least this supply of food 
regularly. 

We will now test the above practical experience by a 
comparison with the standard of feeding given by scien- 
tific investigations. It has been stated that a cow in 
full milk should be suj^plied with a certain quantity of 
digestible food elements, viz., 2^/^ pounds of nitrogenous 
matter or albuminoids, 12^^ pounds of carbonaceous mat- 
ter or carbo-hydrates, and four-tenths (0.40) of a pound 
of fat. These quantities are theoretical, but liave been 
proved by thousands of tests to be practically justified. 
Now the ration fixed upon in our dairy contains the 
following nutritive elements: 

Albuminoids. Carho-Hydrates. Fat. 

15 lbs. of clover hay .-.1.60 5.64 0.31 

^ 41bs.ofbran. 40 1.94 0.12 

6 lbs. of corn meal 50 3.60 0.28 

2.50 11.18 0.71 

Theoretical ration. 2.50 12.50 0.40 

Difference..---..-- -1.82 +0.31 

There is seen to be a deficiency of 1.32 pounds of 
carbo-hydrates and a surplus of 0.31 of a pound of 
fat. This excess of fat will very nearly make up the 
deficiency of carbo-hydrates. But the actual value of 
the foods above given, on account of the extra quality — 
the very best of each being used — would raise the total 
feeding value to 3.12 pounds of albuminoids, 13.98 



154 THE DAIRYKAN^S MAKlTAL. 

pounds of carbo-hydrates, and 0.89 of a pound of fat; 
making an ample supply of materials for the quantity of 
butter produced. In calculating these rations it is only 
necessary to multiply the figures given in the table of 
analyses by the weight of food given, and divide deci- 
mally by 100, by placing 00 before the sum. Thus the 
nutritive elements in fifteen pounds of the best clover hay 
is calculated as follows: 10.7 x 15=160^100 = 1.60; 
showing the quantity of albuminoids contained in this 
quantity of hay. In this manner the reader may easily 
make up a table of rations of whatever feed he may find 
convenient to use, or calculate the feeding value of what 
he may be using. 

Concentrated foods are useful, but at the same time 
require extreme caution in their use. It is a physical 
necessity of animals that some indigestible fiber shall be 
consumed with the nutritious part of the food, and that 
concentrated aliment, wholly soluble and digestible, can- 
not support life healthfully. Animal life is, to a large 
extent, analogous with vegetable life, and as we cannot 
feed a plant with carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, 
and other of its elementary constituents, in solutions in 
water, but must supply our crops with the raw materials 
from which the plants can select and procure for them- 
selves what they require, and analyze and reconstruct 
these elements in their own way, so animals require to 
be fed, not upon the ultimate elements of which they are 
formed, but upon certain substances containing these. in 
various combinations from which the alimentary organs 
can select what are wanted and with these build u]) the 
new tissue with which the wear and tear of the system 
are repaired. 

We feed, for instance, some substances containing 
albumen, gluten, sugar, starch and oil, and these, being 
digested and absorbed by the alimentary organs, are 
changed into the fibrin and albumen of the flesh and the 



FEEDING HATIOITS. 155 

fat of the tissues, a large portion of the last three and 
perhaps some of the first two being changed into car- 
bonic acid by the combustion of the carbon, or, to speak 
more strictly, by the union of their carbon with oxygen 
inhaled by the lungs, and affording by this consumption 
of carbon the heat necessary for the performance of the 
vital functions of the animals. It is believed that the 
oil is directly absorbed into the blood and changed into 
the fat which is deposited in the tissues, or is gathered in 
masses in various parts of tlie body, or is secreted in the 
milk and forms butter. But by some mysterious process 
this fat is wholly changed in appearance, flavor and char- 
acter in its passage through the animal, and although 
the various oils and fats of the food affect to some small 
extent the taste and color of these animal fats, yet on the 
whole there is little or no chemical difference between 
them, and they all partake very much of the same gen- 
eral character. It is true that an expert can detect, for 
instance, the flavor of the oil of cotton-seed or of linseed 
meal in the butter made from them when used as food for 
the cows, and also the difference in the fat of pigs made 
by feeding peas, corn, acorns, chestnuts, and beech nuts; 
also the flavor and color of the fat of oxen are affected 
by the various fatty foods used ; but so far as ^ve know 
the differences are only apparent to the taste and cannot 
be detected by chemical analysis. 

Nevertheless the alchemy of the palate being more 
sensitive than that of the chemist's laboratory, it behooves 
the feeder of meat and the maker of butter — and cheese, 
too, beyond a doubt — to make use of concentra.ted foods 
with care and judgment, because of their effect upon the 
character of the products as well as upon the health of 
his animals. This latter, however, affects the dairyman 
more than the feeder of meat, for as fattening is a 
morbid process it is only necessary to stop at a certain 
stage at the obesity of an animal to save it from death 



156 THE BAIRYMAk's MAKUAL. 

by disease, and substituting the butcher's knife for it; 
but the dairyman cannot sacrifice his cows, except per- 
haps an occasional victim to serve as a medium for a test 
of ability to consume food and change it to butter in 
excessive quantities. He must therefore watch, not only 
the results, both ways, of feeding such rich substances as 
oil meals, and as a safeguard he must know the character' 
of what he is feeding. These remarks refer chiefly to 
cottonseed meal, which, from several writers' experience, 
we have found to be well worth the closest scrutiny and 
most careful use in respect to its effect npon the animal's 
system. Its effect npon the butter is excellent, giving 
good texture, fine color, sweet, nutty flavor, mnch like 
its own, and great firmness, so much so as to render it 
difficult to work up in the winter at less than seventy 
degrees of temperature and to give it a desirable hard- 
ness in the summer. Two pounds per day, however, we 
believe is the extreme quantity that is safe to give a cow 
whose proclivity for converting rich food into butter 
makes her subject to attacks of garget by over-pressure 
in this direction. As regards the effect of cotton-seed 
meal npon the circulatory system of an animal it is only 
necessary to refer to its com^Dosition. A recent analysis 
of the oil meal of the crop of 1886 — a very favorable year 
Hot quality — gives its composition as follows : 

Water...- 6.90 • 

Oil 15.13 

Albuminous compounds 42.40 (nitrogen, 6.77) 

Gum, sugar, aucl digestible fiber 26.96 (carbo-liydrates) 

Indigestible fiber 2.53 

Ash 6.08 

Total -. 100.00 

As the ash consists mostly of potash and phosphoric 
acid, which are useful alimentary substances, it appearvS 
that there is only two and one-half per cent of this food 
that is indigestible. Hence it is almost as highly con- 



FEEDING RATIONS. 157 

centrated a food as sugar or butter, and therefore equally 
injurious and disturbing to the system as these, when 
fed in excess. But as forty-two and one-half per cent 
of this meal consists of nitrogenous substances, and six 
and three-fourths per cent of nitrogen, an excess of it 
is even more disastrous to the animal than an excess 
of carbonaceous food, because of its serious effect upon 
the blood and also upon the kidneys, through which the 
excess of nitrogen must escape. Hence the use of this 
food especially, and all other concentrated foods gener- 
ally, requires care and caution to avoid any excess beyond 
the quantity that the animal can dispose of safely. 

The healthful proportion of the protein (albuminoids) 
to the carbo-hydrates of the food, for the maintenance of 
an animal in good health and thrift, is one of the former 
to five and one-half of the latter, or, as the figures are 
put, 1 :5.5. Of these foods mentioned wheat bran is seen 
to be the nearest to this ratio. Fat is always taken as 
two and one-half times as much as the other carbo- 
hydrates, hence the richer a food is in fat the more the 
relative value of the carbo-hydrates is, and the ratio is 
made out accordingly. As wheat bran contains three 
and one-half per cent of oil or fat, the carbo-hydrates are 
increased by 8.75 instead of 3.50, and the ratio is thus 
12. 9 to nearly 68, or 1 :5,3 nearly. This is a close approx- 
imation to the normal ratio, hence wheat bran should 
be, and is, practically, the best basis for a food for cows 
and other animals kept for milk or flesh. Then we have 
to consider what is wanted after the animal itself is 
supplied with every healthful requisite for its main- 
tenance. -'Clearly, if one desires butter, he should feed 
some substances rich in fat ; if milk, those which are 
rich in protein, to supply the nitrogenous matter of the 
easel ne, and others rich in carbon, to suppty the sugar 
and the fat. Malt sprouts and cotton-seed meal are 
typical foods of these kinds, and in our dairy practice 



158 THE dairymaid's manual. 

have been found most excellent when given in such 
moderation as their richness in nitrogen demands of the 
feeder. 

A few words in explanation of this moderation may 
be useful. Nitrogenous matter in the food, if given in 
excess, must be expelled from the system, or if retained 
in the blood will quickly render this vital fluid poisonous 
and cause serious disorder. The waste nitrogen of the 
food in the vital functions is discharged chiefly through 
the kidneys, and these organs are exceedingly delicate 
and easily disturbed. Hence, food rich in nitrogen is 
to be given with caution, lest the system may be un- 
balanced and disease produced. Cows suffer very quickly 
from inflammatory diseases, as garget, milk fever, and 
lung fever, when an excess of food of either a nitroge- 
nous or carbonaceous character is given ; but there is 
far more danger from an excess of the former than of 
the latter. Young animals which are growing and 
making flesh may easily dispose of food rich in nitro- 
gen, while old cows kept for butter-making or animals 
kept for fattening will turn to good account an excess 
of food that is rich in sugar, starch, and fat. It 
is to be taken as a rule in feeding that no food should 
be given when in a state of fermentation. The use of 
such food is not only unwholesome, but dangerous. The 
warmth of the stomach very quickly accelerates the pro- 
cess of fermentation, and produces a rapid change to 
acid. A small quantity of lactic acid — which is formed 
in brewers' grains, green clover and other rich fodder, 
by moderate fermentation — is not injurious, but assists 
digestion, hence fresh brewers' grains are a most ex- 
cellent food for the production of milk of the best 
quality; but if the grains are used in an advanced 
state of acidity, acetic acid is formed, which is an acrid 
poisonous substance and necessarily injurious when in 
excess. It should go without saying to any intelligent 



FEEDIIN^G EATIOi^S. 159 

man that this food is utterly unfit for cows producing 
milk when it is decomposing and offensively putrid, 
although it is so used sometimes in districts where milk 
for market is the chief product. As brewers' grains are 
seen to be too rich in protein they are best used with 
twice their dry weight of cornmeal. When fed in this 
manner, as is common in some of the largest and best of 
the milk dairies of Westchester and other adjacent coun- 
ties in New York, the milk is unsurpassed in quality. 

Mixing the food is a matter of economy in two ways; 
viz., to secure complete consumption and the desired 
results of it, and so both get all its possible products and 
avoid waste. In our practice, every kind of fodder is cut 
up finely in the.winter feeding, and in the summer, when 
soiling is practiced, the coarser kind of the green fodder 
is cut up in the same way. The cut fodder is wetted 
sufficiently to make the finely ground meal adhere to it, 
and the usual ration of salt (one ounce per head) is added 
and the whole evenly mixed and given to the cows. 

During all our experience in the dairy the observance 
of the Sabbath day as a rest for man and beast has been 
strictly kept up, and as some dairymen think that the 
work cannot be suspended, even in part, on this rest 
day, the method practiced for several years is here de- 
scribed. In the summer, field work is left at 4 p. m. on 
Saturday, and preparations are made for the next day's 
feeding. The fodder is cut and brought in from the 
field to the barn for all day Sunday and for Monday 
morning, and a supply is also cut and put under hay caps 
for a reserve in case of bad weather on Monday. The 
feed for Sunday morning is wetted and mixed and left 
in the feed box, and that for the noon and evening is cut 
and put in a heap on the floor near the box. Everything 
that can be done is made ready for the next day, and by 
seven in the evening the milkiug is all finished and every- 
thing prepared for immediate use the next morning. An 



160 THE dairymaid's 3IANUAL. 

extra supply of pails and pans are kept for use on Sun- 
day, and no pan washing is needed. The pails and 
pans used are well rinsed and filled with cold water and 
left in the outer room of the dairy until Monda}^ An 
hour's extra work on that day makes all things even. 
The cows are kept in the yard and not turned out, and 
an extra large mess of fodder is given at noon as a com- 
pensation. The cows seem to enjoy the change, and lie 
around in the shade and act in every way with the gen- 
eral quietness and stillness one so often observes on a 
Sunday in the country. The milking is an hour later 
on Sunday morning, and this slight irregularity is the 
only thing which has any appreciable effect, for, as a 
rule, the milk falls off to a small extent on Monday 
morning. 

Cutting the fodder has the effect of reducing the 
muscular work of the cow. Every movement of the 
cow's muscles, every motion of the lungs as the animal 
breathes, consumes some of the muscular tissue and 
requires some food to repair the waste. Every digestive 
function is also carried on at some cost of substance for 
the repair of which food is required. The proper prepa- 
ration of the food, then, is a saving of labor for the cow, 
and a saving of food for the owner. The grain food 
thus should be ground as finely as i30ssible, and being 
mixed with the cut and moistened fodder is eaten with 
less exertion, and is digested with the greatest ease. 
It is also more thoroughly digested because of its 
fine condition, subjecting it more completely to the 
action of the solvent fluids of the mouth (the saliva), 
stomach and intestines. As the fat and oil of the food 
exist in exceedingly fine particles distributed in the cellu- 
lar tissue, the thorough grinding and the perfect masti- 
cation of it tend to its most economical disposition in 
the body of the annual. 

A valuable experience in feeding is given by Professor 



FEEDING KATIOXS. IGl 

Muncy of the Iowa Agricultural College in the following 
paragraph : 

"The question often asked me is, ^How do you mix 
your feed?' Suppose it is desired to feed corn, oats, and 
bran. According to the best authority we have, the 
nutritive ratio should be 1 to 5.4. By nutritive ratio is 
meant that the digestive albuminoids should be mixed 
with the starch, sugar, and fat of the food in the pro- 
portion of 1 of the former to 5.4 of the latter. Sup- 
pose now 1 take the average analyses of corn, oats and 
bran, and determine how much digestible ingredients 
are contained in two bushels oats, one bushel corn, and 
fifty pounds bran. It is as follows : 

Digestible. 

Protein. Carho-Hydrates. Fat. 

Pounds. Pounds. Pounds. 

64 pounds oats.. 6.23 31.04 2.49 

56 pounds corn ., ...5.10 37.56 2.33 

' 50 pounds bran 6.01 23.01 1.53 

Nutritive ratio of above is 1 to 6.1, which shows that I 
should add more flesh-forming food. To be brief: If 
you mix sixty-four pounds oats, twenty pounds corn, 
and. fifty pounds bran you will have a nutritive ratio of 
1 to 5.6, which is approximately the one recommended ; 
112 pounds corn, 100 of shorts, and fifty of bran gives a 
nutritive ratio of 1 to 5.4, and watb corn at twenty-five 
cents, shorts at twelve dollars, bran nine dollars, and 
oats twenty-two cents, is cheaper ration for me than 
corn, oats, and bran ; the difference is about five cents 
per 100 pounds; 100 pounds of oats, twenty-five of wheat, 
and fifty of bran will do as well for cows as any given 
at a cost to me of seven cents per hundred more. Bran 
itself is not the best feed for cows. It should be mixed 
with some feed richer in starch, sugar and fat, if you 
desire to feed economically and for profit. Feeding bran 
increases the per cent of cream. By feeding ten pounds 



162 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

of bran per day two cows at tlie Texas Agricultural Col- 
lege increased three and four and a half per cent, re- 
spectively, in a twenty days! trial. At first they re- 
ceived bran and ran on good pasture. Next they were 
made to depend on grass exclusively. The Iowa dairy- 
man should remember that the manure from a well-fed cow 
is worth jorobably twice as much as the manure from a 
grass-fed cow." 

It has already been stated that the results of feeding 
vary with circumstances. The character and quality 
of the herbage vary ; and necessaril}', as grass is the basis 
of a cow's feed, any variation in this will affect the re- 
sults of the grain feeding and make some modification 
necessary. Iowa is a leading dairy State, and this experi- 
ence of Professor Muncy, a most capable and enthusi- 
astic dairy expert, will be valuable for Western dairymen. 

To observe the effect of feeding, tome tests will be 
found useful. A dair3'man should be very inquisitive 
and observant, for his profit depends upon it. He should 
count, measure and weigh everything ; and the quantity 
of food given, its cost and its results, should all be care- 
fully noted. The manner of testing cows described in 
the previous chapter has been constantly practiced in the 
author's dairy, and has been found of the greatest use. 

In practice in the dairy there are times when it is 
impossible to feed hay and other rich foods, on account 
of scarcity in adverse seasons. Farmers have a large 
quantity of rough material to dispose of. Corn fodder, 
straw, coarse hay, and even marsh hay at times, are the 
sole dependence for feeding. In such cases these inferior 
fodders may be made up by the addition of the richer 
foods which can be purchased and used at such a profit 
as will be satisfactory to the dairyman. And in feeding 
these coarser fodders, the use of roots with them will be 
found exceedingly valuable. The succulent roots, being 
almost wholly digestible, aid very much in the digestion 



FEEDIN'G RATIONS. 163 

of the coarser fodder, and. for winter feeding a supply of 
mangels or sugar beets will be indispensable for the most 
profit. In a similar way the use of malt sprouts steeped, 
in water — which makes a sweet semi-liquid, pulp of an 
agreeable odor and taste — mixed with cut straw and corn 
fodder, has been found to keep up the yield of milk, and, 
with a slight increase in the mixed meal or ground grain 
food, to prevent any deficiency in the yield of butter. 
"Well-cured corn fodder, or the stalks of the corn crop, 
cut before frost, or as soon as the grain has been glazed, 
and stacked so as to preserve the greenness and sweetness 
of the leaves, has yielded, with the addition of a peck of 
sliced roots, as much and as good butter as that made 
from the best clover hay. 

The effect of certain foods rich in nitrogenous ele- 
ments, which has been referred to, renders such foods 
injurious at times to cows soon to calve. The author's 
practice has been to wholly suspend feeding grain food 
of any kind to cows as soon as the milking ceases, and 
to feed only roots with hay or corn fodder or straw, or 
a mixture of all, as the case may be, in the winter, and 
only grass or green fodder in the summer. Grain food, 
too, should not be given until the milk has acquired its 
normal character, the fourth day after calving, and is 
then given only in small rations at first and increased 
gradually during a week or ten days, until the full milk 
yield is reached. Feeding for manure as well as milk 
yield is a subject of much interest in the dairy. Large 
crops enable the dairyman to keep a large herd, and large 
crops are grown only upon rich land. A large herd 
makes a large quantity of manure, and it will pay a 
dairyman to expend money, borrowed even for the pur- 
pose, in the purchase of cows and their food, that he 
may produce manure to improve his land, repaying the 
cost of the food through the milk and butter made. 

Having practically experienced this fact, during a few 



164 THE dairyman's manual. 

years upon a yery poor farm, the former owners of whicli 
had starved and had been sold out by the sheriff, we here 
relate the methods by which a bed of mere -shifting sand 
was brought into a condition of fertility, the soil changed 
to a dark loam and made capable of producing 100 
bushels of corn and 1,200 bushels of mangels per acre,.^ 
with a slight surplus of profit the first year, and a very 
satisfactory balance after, which kept increasing up to 
the end of the eighth year, when the farm was disposed 
of at twice its cost. The farm consisted of seventy 
acres, of which nearly one-half was unreclaimed swamp 
meadow, too wet and springy to be safely pastured by 
cows, but which afforded a large quantity of coarse hay 
and a small amount of better grass along the borders of 
the low ground. There was a piece of open beech wood 
which afforded a little pasture, and an old mossy upland 
meadow which gave about 300 pounds of hay to the acre 
from a few grass spots. The rest of the land had been 
cultivated in rye and corn, until the crops had quite run 
out and the whole product could be drawn off in a one- 
horse wagon. Consistently with this condition of things 
there was a stable and barn in one, about sixteen by 
eighteen feet, which was empty and not one ounce of 
manure about the premises. The one poor horse and 
cow were running in the swamp or on the roadsides to 
pick up a starvation living. Possibly there never was a 
much more unpromising case, nor one which offered a 
better opportunity for making an exjDerimental farm, 
and testing the question whether a poor farm could be 
restored to fertility by a Judicious course of improve- 
ment out of its own product and without an extrava- 
gant outlay of money. 

The first thing done was to purchase fifteen cows in 
October, and sufficient hay and grain to winter them. 
The cows were Ayrshires and Jerseys, and some cross- 
bred ones of these kinds. A commodious stable was 



FEEDING RATIONS. 165 

built, with a capacious manure cellar under it. A de- 
scription of the stable has been given in a previous 
chapter. The swamp was drained and a large quantity 
of the best of muck was dug out and drawn into the 
manure cellar and the barnyard, and also stored as litter 
for the cows and absorbents to take up the liquids in the 
manure gutter. Everything went into the cellar, and by 
spring 300 loads of the very best manure was put on 
fifteen acres of the land. About as many acres of fall 
rye were sown and manured with 300 pounds per acre of 
the artificial complete manure. At first milk was sold 
on a neighboring route at eight cents per quart, which 
paid a good profit ; but the difficulty of finding a man 
who could withstand the temptation of handling another 
person's money caused this business to be abandoned, 
and butter-making was substituted. There was another 
reason. Milk contains many valuable elements of plant 
food. Ten cans of forty quarts (1,000 pounds) of milk 
carried off from the land three and a half pounds of 
phosphate of lime, one-half pound of phosphate of mag- 
nesia, and some other combined phosphoric acid and 
other mineral matter equivalent in all to about six and a 
half pounds, and an equal quantity of nitrogen. Every 
month, then, there is lost to the land from fifteen fair 
average cows about seventy-five pounds each of nitrogen 
and as much essential mineral plant food, and in a year 
about 900 pounds of each. To replace this would cost 
about $250. In making and selling butter, nothing but 
carbon and water are carried off, and these cost very 
little to replace, and the loss of carbon is so small that it 
can be safely ignored, although it may be taken from the 
soil. This saving of all the valuable elements of the 
milk is sufficient to throw the balance in favor of butter- 
making when the improvement of the land is a consider- 
able object. 

In the spring the manured land was planted with sweet 



166 THE dairyman's manual. 

corn for fodder, and the rye was cut green and fed to the 
cows. The rye stubble was partly sown with clover and 
orchard grass and clover mixed, and partly plowed and 
planted with mangels, peas, oats and corn. The drained 
swamp was grubbed, thoroughly harrowed up, and sown 
with various grasses, viz., timothy, fowl meadow grass, red 
top and meadow fescue, all of which are adapted to moist 
peaty land. The next year this meadow afforded a large 
quantity of the best hay and constantly improved each 
year afterward. 

These methods of management were continued with a 
gTadual improvement of the land, which in time changed 
from a loose sand, which filled the eyes and ears when a 
strong wind blew across the bare stubble in winter, to a 
dark -brown loam which produced profitable market crops, 
as early potatoes, sweet corn, peas, cabbages, melons, etc., 
all of which sold well and left more or less fodder for the 
cows. No corn (grain) was grown after the second year, 
as other crops were found more profitable. A constant 
succession of crops occupied the land. As soon as a 
strip of rye was cut off in the spring the ground was 
m.anured, plowed, and planted with corn, and this corn 
was at once followed by a second |)lanting or with millet. 
The clover was fed after the rye, and with the orchard 
grass and the grass from the meadow gave abundance of 
green food until the sweet corn fodder was ready, after 
which there was a large surplus to be cured for winter 
feeding. The clover was cut a second time, and made a 
heavy crop of hay with a top dressing of the fine manure 
made from the swamp muck used in the stables, yards, 
and pens. 

After seven years of this method of work the farm be- 
came highly profitable and not only repaid the whole cost 
of the improvements and stock, but left a considerable 
profit. The butter made brought an average of sixty-five 
cents a pound from private families, and the market grops 



FEEDING tlATIOi^S. 16'? 

helped considerably in increasing the income as well as 
in providing excellent fodder for the cows in the refuse. 

There are many cases in which farms which have been 
badly managed near towns and cities may be purchased 
cheaply, stocked with cows, and worked in this way with 
great advantage; for the needed foods can be easily pro- 
cured. Manure may be purchased cheaply and the 
products sold at the best market prices. The purchase 
of manure, however, is not best when food can be bought 
and made into butter at a profit, and the manure left. 

The following remarks by Sir J. B. Lawes, the first 
authority in the world upon this subject, may be read 
most profitably: 

''The only constituents of food which are of impor- 
tance as ingredients of manure are the nitrogenous sub- 
stances and the ash constituents. If the live weight of 
an animal remains unchanged, and there is no production 
of milk, the quantity of nitrogen and ash constituents 
voided in the manure will be the same as that contained 
in the food consumed ; the albuminoids and ash con- 
stituents of the food used for the renovation of tissue 
being in this case equivalent to the quantity yielded by 
the degradation of tissue. In cases where the body 
weight is increasing, or milk being formed, the amount 
of nitroofen and ash constituents in the manure will 
be less than that in the food, in direct proportion to the 
quantity of these converted into animal produce. 

" A part of the albuminoids and ash constituents are 
left undigested during the passage of the food through 
the alimentary canal ; these are voided in the solid excre- 
ment. The digested nitrogenous matter and ash con- 
stituents pass into the blood; a part of them may be 
converted into animal increase if the animal is gaining 
in weight or producing milk, and the remainder is 
finally separated from the blood by the kidneys, and 
is voided in the form of urine. The albuminoids are 



168 



THE DAIRYMAID'S MATn'UAL. 



oxidized into urea before being expelled from the system. 
In the case of herbivorous animals hippuric acid is also 
formed in variable quantities, and is found as an ingre- 
dient of the urine. 

*' The proportion of the nitrogen in the food which will 
appear in the solid excrement is determined by the di- 
gestion co-efficient of the albuminoids. Thus, seventy- 
nine has been given as the digestion co-efficient of the 
albuminoids of barley-meal when consumed by a i^ig; 
it follows that in this case for 100 of albuminoids con- 
sumed twenty-one will be voided in the solid excrement 
and seventy-nine pass into the blood. It has been 
stated that 500 pounds of barley-meal, containing about 
fifty-three pounds of albuminoids, will in the case of the 
pig produce 100 pounds of animal increase, containing 
7.8 pounds of albuminoids. Its follows from these data 
that for 100 pounds of albuminoids consumed 14.7 are 
stored up as carcase, twenty-one appear in the solid ex- 
crement, and 64.3 as urea, etc., in the urine. In the* 
same way, by deducting the ash constituents stored up 
from those present in the food, we arrive at the quantity 
of ash constituents voided in the manure. Calculating 
in this maimer the relation of food to manure in the case 
of the fattening ox, milking cow, sheep and pig, we 
arrive at the following conclusions : 

NITROGEN STORED UP AND VOIDED FOR 100 CONSIBIED. 



Oxen. 
Sheep . 
Pigs-. 



Stored up 

as 
Increase. 



3.9 

4.3 

14.7 



Voided as I Voided as 

Solid Liquid 

ExcrernentM Excrement. 



22.6 
16.7 
21.0 



73.5 
79.0 
64.3 



In Total 
Excreincnt. 



96.1 
95 7 

85.8 



* The quantities of nitrogen given in this column are a little below 
the truth, as besides the undigested albuminoids some nitrogenous 
biliary matter is present in the solid excrement. With oxen and sheep 
the amount of biliary matter in the excrement is very small, with pigs 
it is more considerable.- In the case of the pig the nitrogen in the solid 
excrement should probably stand as 25, and that in the liquid as 59.3. 



FEEDING RATIOKS. 169 



ASH CONSTITUENTS STOEED 


UP AND VOIDED 


FOR 100 CONSUMED. 




Stored up as 
Increase. 


— 


Voided in Total 
Excreme7its. 


Oxen 


2.3 
3.8 
4.5 


97.7 


Sheep 


96.2 


Pio-s 


95.5 







*' The proportion of the nitrogen and ash constituents 
of the food which is retained by a fattening animal is in 
all cases very small; in each instance mentioned above, 
save one, more than ninety-five per cent of both nitrogen 
and ash constituents find their way into the manure. 
The pig is seen to retain the largest proportion of the 
nitrogen of the food ; this is clearly owing to the greater 
proportion of increase which the pig produces from a 
given weight of food. 

*^ The amount of nitrogen voided in the urine is seen to 
be three or four times the quantity contained in the solid 
excrement. This relation will vary greatly according to 
the character of the diet. If the food is nitrogenous 
and easily digested, the nitrogen in the urine w^ill greatly 
preponderate; if, on the other hand, the food is one imper- 
fectly digested, the nitrogen in the solid excrement may 
form the larger quantity. When ordinary hay is the 
diet, the nitrogen in the solid excrement will generally 
somewhat exceed that contained in the urine ; with a 
straw diet the excess in the solid excrement will be still 
greater. On the other hand, corn and oil cake, and 
especially roots, yield a large excess of nitrogen in the 
urine. 

^' The ash constituents are very differently distributed in 
the solid excrement and urine; in the former, lime, mag- 
nesia, and phosphoric acid preponderate, while the lat- 
ter contains nearly all the potash. With sheep fed on 
hay about ninety-five per cent of the lime contained 
in the food, seventy per cent of the magnesia, and 
eighty-three per cent of the phosphoric acid were found 



170 



THE DAIKYMAis^^S MA.KUAL. 



in the solid excrement, but only three per cent of the 
potash. 

**Afair idea of the general composition both of the 
solid excrement and of the urine is given by the follow- 
ing table: 

PEECENTAGE COMPOSITION OF SOLID AND LIQUID EXCEEMENT— SHEEP 

FED ON HAT. 





Solid Excrement. 


Urine. 




Fresh. 


Drij. 


Fresh. 


Dry. 


Water 


66.3 

30.3 

3.5 


89^6 
10.4 


85.7 
8.7 
5.6 




Organic matter 

Ash. 


61.6 
39.0 


Nitrogen 


0.7 


2.0 


1.4 


9.6 



OXEN WITH NITEOGENOUS DIET. 





Solid Excrement. 


Urine. 




Fresh. 


Dry. 


Fresh. 


Dry. 


Water 

Organic matter 

Ash 


86.3 

12.3 

1.4 


89'7 
10.3 


94.1 
3.7 

2.2 


63.0 
37.0 


Nitrogen 


0.3 


1.9 


1.2 


20.6 



**The extreme richness of the urine, both in ash con- 
stituents and nitrogen, is very evident. In the case of 
highly-fed oxen (and cows) the dry matter of the urine 
is seen to contain over twenty per cent of nitrogen. 
Urine readily undergoes fermentation, the urea being 
transformed into carbonate of ammonium. As this is a 
volatile substance, a loss of a part of the nitrogen voided 
may easily occur, especially if an insufficient amount of 
litter is employed. 

** The relative value of the manure produced by differ- 
ent foods is determined by the relative richness of the 
foods in nitrogen and ash constituents, but chiefly by the 
amount of nitrogen, this being the most costly ingredient 
of purchased manure. The average amount of nitrogen 
and of the two most important ash constituents con- 
tained in the ordinary foods is shown in the following 
table : 



FEEDIKG KATIOKS. 



Ill 



MANUKliX CONSTITUENTS IN 1,000 PARTS OP ORDINARY FOODS. 



Cotton cake (decorticated) . 

Rape cake - 

Linseed cake - . 

Cotton cake(undecorticated)- 

Linseed 

Palm-keniel meal (English).. 

Beans 

Peas - - - 

Malt dust- 

Bran 

Oats 

Wheat --. 

Barley 

Maize _ 

Clover hay- 

Meadow hay ■ 

Bean straw .-• 

Wheat straw 

Barley straw. • 

Oat straw 

Potatoes 

Mangels 

Swedes 

Carrots 

Turnips 



Pjy ' mtroscn. I mask. ^'^1^ 



Matter 



885 
905 
930 
855 
857 
905 
865 
870 
856 
860 
886 
840 
857 
840 
857 
850 
830 
250 
115 
107 
142 
83 




i'^\ 



The oil cakes yield the ^ richest manure, as they con- 
tain a large amount both of nitrogen and phosphoric 
acid, with a considerable amount of potash. Next to 
these come the leguminous seeds, malt-dust and bran. 
Clover hay yields a richer manure than the cereal grains, 
but meadow hay stands below them. The cereal grains 
and the roots contain about the same proportion of 
nitrogen in their dry substance ; the roots, however, 
supply much more potash. Potatoes stand below roots 
in their manurial value. Straw takes the lowest place 
as a manure-yielding food; bean and pea straw are 
more valuable for this purpose than the straw of the 
cereals. 

'' The ash constituents present in animal manure have 
probably the full money value of thfe same constituents 
in artificial manure, but the nitrogen has apparently a 
lower value than the nitrogen of ammonium salts or 



172 THE DAIRYMAN^*S MAKUAL. 

nitrate of sodium, from the slowness with which it be- 
comes available for the plaut's use." — The greater per- 
manence in the soil of this element of the manure, how- 
ever, is a point worthy of high consideration. 

As giving some practical results of actual dairy prac- 
tice, the following instances of successful feeding of dairy 
cows by some prominent dairymen in New York State 
may be usefully mentioned here. They were given by 
Mr. Scoville of New Hartford, N. Y., at a meeting of 
the New York State Dairymen's Association. 

Mr. Scoville visited a few farms in the vicinity of 
Syracuse, among which were the Avery farms, conducted 
by the Skiff Brothers. They had at that time sixty cows 
in milk. The cows were fed morning and evening, two 
quarts of middlings, three quarts of shorts, with a half- 
bushel of corn ensilage. The shorts and middlings were 
thrown upon the ensilage when the latter was given to 
the cows. About eight pounds of cut hay is fed to each 
cow at noon. About a half-acre of pasture range is ap- 
portioned to each cow in summer, with one feed at even- 
ing of green clover, green oats and corn to follow as the 
season advances. The milking is regular at five o'clock 
in the morning and five at night. In summer there is 
no grain feed. In winter the cows are bedded with cut 
straw and watered once a day at about ten o'clock in the 
morning, usually in the yard, but in stormy weather in 
the stable. The yield of milk from this dairy, as gath- 
ered from the books of the Onondaga Milk Associa- 
tion, for the twelve months ending December, 1886, was 
188,070 quarts, an average to each cow of 2,756 quarts, 
or about 5,900 pounds average. 

The George Grouse farm has forty-three cows in milk. 
Steaming the fodder was formerly practiced on this farm, 
but has been abandoned. The feed now used is all cut. 
Ensilage forms the base of winter feeding. The ration 
to each cow twice a day is a half-bushel of ensilage, 



FEEDING KATION^S. 173 

morning and niglit, and about six quarts of brewers' 
grains with cut hay at noon. The cows stand in stanch- 
ions and the feeding is in a trough in front of them, 
six inches in depth and two feet wide. The cows are 
w^atered from these feeding troughs from a stop-cock 
at one end. The cows are kept in the stable and 
let out only on very pleasant days, and not left out 
over half an hour at a time. When exjDosed to the 
cold for any length of time, there is a perceptible fall- 
ing off of the milk yield. In very cold weather the chill 
is taken from the water in the tank by steam pipes. 
The grinding of the grain and cutting of the feed are 
done by steam power. In summer about three-fourtlis 
of an acre of pasture is allowed to each cow, with green 
feed once a day at night. The yield of milk from thirty- 
six cows kept on this farm during the year ending 1886 
equaled 5,500 pounds to a cow. 

Another farm visited was that of B. Chaffee, who feeds 
about one bushel of ensilage to each full-grown cow twice 
a day, with a peck of brewers' grains and three quarts of 
bran and hay at noon and evening. Mr. Chaffee has a 
silo which cost complete $750. The silo is thirty-two by 
twenty-one feet, divided by inside v/all into two equal 
silos, twenty-four feet high from the bottom of silo to top 
of the plate. The bottom of the silo is about nine feet 
below the surface of the ground, and sixteen feet of wall 
is concrete, eighteen inches thick at the bottom and one 
foot on top, and perfectly plumb on the inside. The in- 
side walls of the silo are finished with round corners, and 
it takes eighteen planks, one foot wide and fourteen feet 
long, to cover each silo. The walls of the silo are made 
with waterlime concrete and cobble-stone, excepting 
that the corners are laid with quarried stone. The larcrer 
proportion of corn used for ensilage was the Southern 
White, and field and sweet corn. The sweet corn ears 
were sent to the canning factory. Mr. Chaffee's niilk 



174 THE daikyman's manual. 

record of thirteen cows for the last year showed an 
average of 6,300 pounds to each cow. 

The Demming- farm, near the cit}^ of Auburn, has 
been managed for many yearrf by A. D. Murdock. It 
? contains something over three hundred acres. There 
are usually fifty or sixty acres in wheat and about forty 
acres field corn, besides other grain. About sixty cows 
in milk are usually kept on this farm. Mr. Murdock 
uses no ensilage, but, with steam power on the farm, 
cuts and grinds all his own feed. The winter feed of his 
cows is in substance as follows : A bushel of cut corn- 
stalks niglit and morning, with about seven quarts of the 
mixture of two bushels barley sprouts, six bushels bran, 
two bushels middlings or corn meal, all thoroughly mixed 
together. In winter the cows are out from one to two 
hours, when the day is pleasant, for exercise. The 
cows are sometimes kejDt in the stable for three weeks 
at a time in stormy weather without apparent injury. 
They are watered in the stable from a trough con- 
veniently arranged in front of them. In summer they 
are pastured, and when the pastures become dry and the 
feed scanty they receive a supplement of some green-cut 
fodder. The stock of cattle on this farm is replenished 
by raising the calves. 

On the farm of Charles E. Benton, near Utica, con- 
taining 130 acres, forty cows are kept, which in winter 
are fed hay, brewers' grains, shorts and meal, in the pro- 
portion of one-third bushel of grains to four quarts of 
shorts and two quarts of corn meal mixed, with a little 
salt added. When grains are not obtainable, roots are 
fed. In summer they are kept in pasture, and fed twice 
each day brewers' grains and green-cut clover or corn. 

On the farm of Dr. L. L. Wight, of Whitesboro, are 
kept about fifty cows. A specialty of this farm is to 
supply milk in winter, the cows dropping their calves 
late in the autumn. The food is a bushel of corn 



MANAGEMEN^T OF COWS IN THE STABLE. 175 

ensilage three times a day, and in the morning and at 
night about five pounds of shorts during the winter. In 
summer the cows are kept to pasture. The cows are 
watered in winter by turning them out in squads of 
about fifteen. While fed this amount of ensilage, the 
cows require but little water. While the cows go dry 
before calving, no shorts or grain is fed. By long ex- 
periment in feeding on this farm, it is found that the^ 
best and largest flow of milk is obtained when shorts alone 
are fed with ensilage. About thirty acres of corn are 
planted, ten acres of which are used for soiling and the 
balance made in ensilage. About two-thirds of this was 
sweet corn, which- was allowed to ear, and the corn 
was used for canning, the stalks being made into ensilage. 
The corn is drilled in rows four feet apart, and harrowed 
with a smoothing harrow till six inches high, when the 
cultivator is used. The corn is cut with the reaper and 
left in bundles to be loaded upon the wagon, hauled to 
the silo and cut. The cutting is done with a six-horse 
power engine. Fifty tons are cut and put in the silo in 
a day. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

MANAGEMENT OF COWS IN THE STABLE. 

Milk is one of the most actively absorbent of all 
substances. It acquires most easily the odors which es- 
cape from adjacent objects. When the author was in 
Europe some years ago and visited a noted French dairy 
at Isegny, he found the stable windows filled with pots 
of growing roses, and a portion of the yard in front of 
the stable fenced off from the rest was occupied by beds 
of the standard roses jieculiar to French gardens, which 
bear large heads of profuse bloom at the top of a single 



176 THE DAIRYMAJv's MANUAL. 

stem four or five feet higli. The stable and yard were 
redolent with the perfume of these roses, and of helio- 
tropes and other sweet-scented flowers. The dairy- 
house was emboAvered with roses and other flowers. The 
butter sent to the Paris market every day was packed in 
boxes with fresh green leaves and a quantity of roses 
sj)read upon the linen cover over the butter. Without 
going quite so far as this French dairyman, whose butter 
is sent to Paris, London and Vienna, and, packed in 
casks of brine, to the East Indies, the American dairy- 
man should at least preserve his stable free from the ill 
odors so common to these buildings. It has been said in 
regard to scents that the best odor is the absence of 
scent, and this certainly applies to a butter dairy from 
the beginning to the ending. For as *^good wine needs 
no bush" so good butter needs no perfume more than 
its own natural sweetness and j^ure agreeable aroma. 

Nevertheless, the presence of a green lawn and flowers 
about a stable would certainly tend to the preservation of 
that perfect cleanliness which is the great secret of success 
in the dairy. And it might be a most yaluable addition to 
the cow stable as an inducement to keep all other things 
consistent with it. A lady visitor to the author's dairy, 
placing her hand upon one of the well-brushed and clean- 
skinned cows, remarked : ^^Why, everything is as clean 
and neat as a parlor; it seems so strange and unlike a cow 
stable.^' It was certainly our wish and effort to keep 
the stable always so, but it must be admitted that this 
visit was made at the time when the daily cleaning had 
just been completed, the floor neatly littered with cut 
straw and leaves, the gutter filled with fresh dry swamp 
muck and dusted over with plaster, and the cows 
brushed and 'carded for the evening milking. A glass 
of fresh milk newly drawn from a cow under such circum- 
stances is a delicacy, while it would be wholly repugnant 
under the too common circumstances prevalent in cow 



MAKAGEMEXT OF COWS IN THE STABLE. 177 

stables. But the dairyman who would excel in his busi- 
ness and stand at the top, must practice this thorough 
cleanliness in every detail. Pure, fragrant milk, sound, 
well-flavored cheese, and the finest aud sweetest butter 
are procured only under these conditions. The cows 
themselves, too, are as absorbent of impurities as the 
milk. The air breathed into the lungs, and carried 
through all the intricate cellular jjassages and chambers 
of the lung tissue, is brought into contact with an infinite 
number of capillary blood vessels, which absorb the air and 
discharge the load of impurities brought from every part 
of the animal's body. If the air is not pure the offen- 
sive matter is taken into the blood, and some of the im- 
purities in this fluid are retained, thus j^oisoning the 
very source from which the whole animal system is 
nourished. A stream is never purer than its source, and 
thus the animal is polluted by this absorbed impurity 
w^hich is forced to escape in some way. As the milk is a 
direct product from the blood, the blood discharges its 
offensive load in part with this secretion, aud impure 
blood cannot make pure milk. Besides, the self-preserv- 
ing instincts, or rather laws, of animal life tend to force 
the blood to throw off impure matter in the easiest way, 
and as a large quantity of milk is secreted daily and the 
milk glands are exceedingly active, an}^ impure matter in 
the blood is rapidly discharged through the milk glands. , 
An instance of this was afforded when a quantity of 
frozen turnip leaves left in the stable, which was filled 
with the odor of them, caused the milk to smell disa- 
greeably by the absorption of the odor through the cows. 
Physicians are well acquainted with the fact that the 
perspiration and urine of painters who use turpentine 
always have an odor, more or less, of the turpentine. 
Disease is most prevalent where impure air prevails, and 
if disease and death are produced by the absorption of 
impurities we cannot expect pure milk from foul stables. 



178 THE DAIRYMAN'S MANUAL. 

Thus the careful management of the cows becomes an 
important part of the business of a dairyman. The stable 
should be clean, or the cows cannot be clean ; it should 
be well aired and ventilated, or the air in it will be im- 
pure ; it should be made comfortable, or the cows will 
be worried and yield less milk ; it should be cool in sum- 
mer and warm in winter. There should be a conyenient 
way to dispose of the manure, and a convenient -and safe 
mode of entrance and exit. The fastenings should be 
safe. The cows should be separated so that they cannot 
hook or punch each other when fastened, and yet be so 
close together that space is economized ; they should be 
thoroughly carded and brushed twice a day, and immedi- 
ately before milking, and in every way they should be 
preserved from uncleanliness and annoyance, and kept 
contented and happy. 

The following system of management has been adopted 
and practiced in the author's dairy: 

The stable has been described in a preceding chapter. 
The cows are stabled every night through the year ; in 
the winter for warmth and shelter, and in the summer 
for coolness and for safety from flies, also for the saving 
of manure. The manure made is an item of importance 
and is an object of solicitude ; the management is there- 
fore to some extent made consistent with the saving of 
all the manure possible. 

At five o'clock in the morning the stable is cleaned by 
opening the trap doors in the gutter and drawing out the 
manure into the cellar by means of a large hoe, fourteen 
inches wide to fit the gutter, the gutter is then washed 
out with a few pailfuls of water from the pump, and 
brushed out with a stiff broom, after which the trap 
doors are closed. The standing floors and passage- 
way behind the cows are previously swept. The floor 
and gutter are then sprinkled liberally with gypsum 
(plaster), and are littered down with leaves, cut straw, 



MAKAGEMENT OF COWS IN THE STABLE. 179 

or hardwood sav/dust, as the case may be, and two or 
three wheelbarrows of dry swamp muck are scattered 
along the gutter. The cows are then well carded and 
brushed, and a little hay or green fodder is given 
them, by which time breakfast is ready. After break- 
fast the cows are fed in the manner previously described 
and while eating they are milked. This plan has been 
adopted as the best in every way, and it certainly tends 
much to the largest j^ield of milk. As each cow is 
milked the pail and milk are weighed on a spring balance 
hanging in the stable, and the weight is marked down 
on a slate or a tablet hanging on the wall at the back of 
the cows. The milk is then strained from the pail, 
which has a lip strainer, through a separate double 
strainer of wire gauze with a fine linen muslin stretched 
over it, into a deep pail. The milk is thus passed 
through four strainers at one operation, and perfect 
cleanliness is secured. After milking, if any cow evinces 
a desire for more feed, an additional supply is given 
to satisfy her. The system is to give to each cow all she 
can be persuaded to eat. If any cow's food is not all 
eaten the fact is noted and the reason ascertained. If 
the milk of any cow has fallen off or has increased more 
than the usual small variance from day to day, this is 
made a matter for inquiry and note. 

In the summer the cows are then let out and taken to 
the pasture or a grass lot, or kept in the yard, as the case 
may be, and have as much water as they desire. The- 
yard is always kept clean, the manure being taken up 
and thrown upon the heap in the center of the yard. In 
the winter the cows are kept in the stable and remain 
there until noon, when they are watered. In the hot 
weather, when flies are troublesome, great care is taken 
to preserve the cows from annoyance. This plague of 
flies is very detriment-il to the cows, and should be 
avoided in every possible way. 



180 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

The liberal use of plaster (finely powdered gypsum), 
or a solution of two pounds of copperas in a barrel of 
water, in the stables is at once a cheap, simple, and 
effective relief. It sweetens the air of the stables, which 
is equivalent to increased ventilation, and thus permits 
the windows to be protected with fine wire gauze or 
mosquito netting, which to some extent obstructs the 
free passage of air. A peck of plaster, at the cost of a 
few cents— all returned, of course, in the manure after- 
ward — is sprinkled over a floor fifty by twenty-four feet, 
and more freely in the manure gutter than elsewhere ; 
or a pailful of the solution of copperas is spread from a 
garden watering-can over the floor, and these applica- 
tions are made after clearing off the floor and sweeping 
it. Occasionally the floor is washed off with a hose at- 
tached to a force-pump in the yard, or to one on the 
cistern close by, and the floor is then freely sprinkled 
with sand brought from the root cellar under a portion 
of the cow stable. A bushel basket of the sand is suf- 
ficient for one day's use. This avoids the certain danger 
of the cows slipping upon the damp floor, dries it, and 
also absorbs some of the odor. 

To darken the windows is a great relief, and this is 
done by having green blinds, which afford free ventila- 
tion while excluding the light. The same result may be 
reached by covering the windows with whitewash of 
Spanish white, in which some indigo or Prussian blue is 
mixed, or a little lampblack may be used, but the tinge 
is then dark and somber, and the blue is the best. If 
the windows are on the north side of the stable so much 
the better, as the flies gather mostly upon the south and 
west sides. The stable may be quite freed from flies in 
the afternoon, when they are unusually abundant, by 
stirring a pot of coal-tar with a hot poker so as to fill the 
building with a dense smoke, but the iron should not be 
60 hot as to cause the tar to take fire. This smoke is 



MAK"AGEMEXT 0^ COWS IN T?HE STABLE. 18 1 

healthful, and with a little care there need be no risk in 
making it. Then there are some applications that may 
be made to the animals themselves. Wormwood, tansy, 
tomato leaves, and, best of all, carbolic acid in w^ater 
(one dram to a pailful), may be applied to their skins, 
and chiefly the legs, the last thing in the evening, and 
left on to dry. The last two years we have used Persian 
insect powder with the best results. A small quantity 
of this dusted freely through the stable and blown 
through a tube on to the ceiling, stanchions, and stalls, 
will kill every fly in the stable, and, if the entrance of 
others is prevented, a quiet night will be enjoyed. Un- 
fortunately, this is a costly substance, selling at fifty 
cents a pound ; but a little goes a long way, as it is very 
fine and light and floats in the air. For rooms in 
houses, and especially kitchens, it is indispensable once 
it has been used, as the flies may all be destroyed in the 
evening and more kept out at least for a few hours in 
the morning ; and a house may be freed from flies by 
keeping it dark through the day, for the pests always 
make for the light. A tame bat, which we first found 
hanging in its usual way to the cord behind a picture, 
and which now stays with us, clears the rooms at night 
of every fly. During the night it goes from room to 
room, the doors being left open for it. It will be found 
better to encourage these harmless creatures in this w^ay 
to enter the house and stable than to attack them with 
brooms and kill them, to the eminent risk of destroying 
glassware and mantel ornaments. 

But all the flies cannot begot rid of ; some will remain 
in spite of all endeavors. For these, when milking, we 
keep a sheet, which is thrown over the back of the cow, 
and that prevents the- lashing of the tail and the kicking 
which is so disagreeable and risky for the milk pail. A 
little bundle of horse-hair, tied to the end of a light 
handle, is a part of the milking utensils, and lies handv 



182 THE DAIRYMAl^^'S MAi^UAL. 

to be picked up to brush the flies from the forelegs when 
they become troublesome there. 

In the summer the cows are brought in at five o'clock 
in the afternoon and put into their places in the clean 
stable. They are very eager to come in, and are usually 
standing at the gate waiting for an hour or more before 
the time comes. If not, they come at the call of a whis- 
tle which they have learned is the summons to their 
evening meal. The same routine as to brushing, feeding 
and milking is gone through, and when all is finished 
it is supper time. After supper, and the last thing before 
retiring for the night, the stable is visited and the cows 
looked over, the fastenings being especially examined to 
be sure every cow is safely secured. This is quite im- 
portant and an instance of this may be noted. Once 
when visiting a well-known breeder of valuable Jersey 
cows and a noted maker of fine butter, about nine 
o'clock in the evening we suggested that a walk be 
taken and the cows looked at, remarking that this 
was never neglected in our dairy. Our friend laughed 
at our overcarefnlness, but went out and passed 
through the stables. On coming to the loose stalls 
where the most valuable cows were kept, one was found 
down with her head under the manger and the tie rope 
tanded around one foreles: and her neck. It was a fatal 
predicament had the cow not been quickly released, for 
the rope was pressing on the cow's throat. ^' That idea of 
yonrs has saved me $1500," said my friend as we returned 
to the house, *^for that cow is sold to go to Canada at 
that price as soon as she has calved, and she could not 
have lived in that way until morning." 

For the sake of safety, all the inner doors in the 
stables are made to open and shut from the inside next 
the cows, and to shut themselves by coiled springs and 
fasten with a spring latch, so that no animals can get 
from their own place to the others or out of doors, or 



ma:n"agemen^t of cows in the stable. 183 

to the feed rooms or the feed on the floor, should they 
get unfastened. The ground feed is kept on the floor 
over the stable, and in every possible Avay precautions 
are taken for entire safety. No matches are kept about 
the buildings ; no smoking has been permitted, and no 
light is used excepting the safety kerosene oil lanterns, i 
in which the safest and best oil is burned. The lanterns 
are hung, Avhen in use, upon bracket hooks over the pas- 
sage-way, above the reach of a man's head. The outer 
door of the stable is then locked and the day's business is 
ended. Similar practice prevails with the calves, bull, 
and horses, and all the farm management is brought to 
a systematic routine, through which one never needs to 
stop and ask what is next to be done. 

The chief business of this dairy has been winter butter 
making, and the cows have been brought in from Sep- 
tember until December. The course of breeding has 
been such as to bring each cow into liiilking at about the 
same time in each year, and the heifers about September 
or October, so as to give them as long a milking season 
as possible with the first calf. Some particular care is 
taken with the incoming cows. If not naturally dried 
off two months before the calf is due, milking is grad- 
ually suspended so as to have six weeks at least of rest. 
When the cow shows indications of early calving, she is 
moved to the stall in the further end of the open shed 
and nearest to the house, where she is under careful 
supervision until the calf is born. As soon as the 
milking is suspended, all grain feeding is stopped, and 
only dry long hay is fed. The cow is left loose in the 
stall, which is well littered and is kept clean. When the 
calf is dropped, the cow is tied up and is fed a meal of 
warm bran mash. The calf is removed at once to the 
pen at the further end of the yard. In six hours the cow 
is milked, and the milk is given to the calf, which is 
taught to drink. The cow is never troubled about the 



1S4 THE DA1RYMAN^*S MANUAL. 

calf after this, and comes to her milk without any of the 
common difficulties of holding up the milk, sore teats, 
etc., which appertain to cows suckling calves. The food 
given is dry hay with the usual warm bran mash, until' 
the fourth day, after which the cow goes back to her 
place in the stable and is gradually brought up to her 
full feeding. Large milking cows very often have the 
udder hard, and milk very little for the first and second 
days. This is the natural condition of the udder of a 
newly calved cow, the glandular substance of which is 
excited but has not yet come into action. In a short 
time the glands get to work and begin to secrete milk 
copiously, and then the udder softens down and comes 
into a natural conditiou again. There is no reason to 
fuss over the hard udder the first or second day and to 
apprehend trouble, and as long as the udder is free from 
inflammation and extreme tenderness there need be no 
anxiety. When the chapter on milk is reached, this 
condition of the udder will be exj^lained, and it will be 
seen that it is naturally to be expected from the neces- 
sities of the case. To attempt by unnecessary fomenta- 
tion, or the use of exciting applications, to remove this 
supposed trouble in the udder, is to most likely catfse the 
very result one is apprehending and trying to avoid. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

REARING CALVES FOR THE DAIRY. 

The calves are the means for the improvement of the 
dairy. By a gradual course of breeding, rearing, and de- 
velopment the calves become the basis for all the skill 
of the dairyman's work in improving his stock and in in- 
creasing their valuable product. Breed is made up of 
feed and the most skillful care, and by judicious manage- 



HEARING CALVES FOR THE DAIRY. 185 

menfc the calves are developed into more useful and pro- 
ductive animals than their dams, until in course of time 
the improvement becomes fixed and is inherited by the 
progeny. It is in this way that the improved breeds 
have been made up. The Shorthorn cattle have been 
thus trained and educated — this word means literally 
'Head out "or brought out — for over a hundred years, 
until they have become the finest. beef cattle in existence. 
The Ayrshires have thus been made a most excellent 
dairy breed, and the defects of the original race have 
been bred out by selection and care in the breeding of 
the young stock. The Jerseys have been brought up in 
size, productiveness and beauty during the past thirty 
years by the same process, until they have become greatly 
increased in value ; and so it has been and is with other 
races. A herd of our common native cattle has been im- 
proved during the short space of seven years until their 
product has been doubled and their appearance greatly 
changed. The produce of one cow in this time will num- 
ber about sixteen animals in five generations, and a great 
deal can be done in these repeated breedings. The 
choice of a pure bred bull of some acknowledged dairy 
breed and of good character should however be made, 
and in three or four 3'ears the progeny, if well selected, 
will then partake of the good qualities of the pure breed. 
Half bred Jersey, Guernsey or Ayrshire calves have been 
found equally valuable for product with the pure bred 
ones, and, as a rule, these half bred calves, from well se- 
lected sires and the best native cows, will be found on 
an average to be superior for product to an average of 
the pure bred cows. Such has been the experience 
of dairymen who have thus started on a course of im- 
provement of their common stock. 

The calf thus well bred must be well fed and trained. 
It is by no means necessary that the calf should be fed 
upon fresh milk from the cow. Cream a: I fat are not 



1^6 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

required by a calf intended for the dairy, but a good 
frame of bones covered with healthful muscular tissue. 
These are abundantly supplied by skimmed milk, and 
the milk is well and fully digested when given warm 
and at a temperature almost equal to that of the stom- 
ach. Eighty degrees is a very good temperature for the 
milk for a young calf. An excellent method of feeding 
a calf intended for the dairy is as follows. Heifers only 
should be reared, as the cost of fattening a male calf is 
greater than its value for veal, and males should only be 
reared when their value for breeding purposes offers 
a chance for profit. 

The calf, removed to a dry comfortable pen away from 
the cow, is given the whole milk warm from the cow, 
twice a day, for four days ; the ninth meal is made up of 
half the fresh milk and half sweet skimmed milk, warmed 
to the same temperature as the new milk. Three quarts 
are a sufficient meal for a calf at this age, if two meals 
a day are given ; if three meals are given two quarts at 
each will be sufficient. Overfeeding at this stage is to be 
avoided, and it should be remembered that the young- 
calf, if sucking the cow, will get only a small meal at a 
time, and its digestive functions are not as yet prepared to 
dispose of several quarts of milk at once. The quantity 
should be gradually increased as the calf can digest it, 
until three meals of three quarts each are disposed of, 
or two meals daily of four or five quarts each, at 
the end of a month. The milk should be given sweet 
and always at the same temperature. If by any accident 
diarrhoea should occur, a quart only of new milk warm 
from the cow, or heated to ninety degrees, will stop it, if 
no other food is given. In nearly every case this dis- 
order is caused by an excess of food and consequent in- 
digestion, or the use of sour milk. When a month old 
the calf maybe taught to lick a little finely ground corn, 
bran and linseed mixed m equal parts. A teaspoonful is 



itlllARIXG CALVES FOR THE DAIRY. 



1^1 



enough to begin wi^th, gradually increased up to a table- 
spoonful daily at two months, four ounces daily at three 
months, eight ounces daily at five months, and a pound 
at six months. From three months up, six quarts of 
milk twice a day may be given, and at. a month old the 
calves should have a run in a grass pasture of a quarter 
of an acre or so, enclosed purposely with portable fence, 
which is moved to give fresh grass as may be required. 
At two months the calf will begin to drink a little water, 
which should thereafter be provided. In winter some 
fresh, sweet, early cut clover hay should be given after 
the first mouth, and the quantity increased gradually 
as the calf learns to consume it. The gradual increase 
of the food should be carefully w^atched ; but there 
is no danger from an excess of hay; it is the grain food 
which is more apt to be given to excess and do harm. 




gss 



3=3 



S 



Fig. 21.— PLAN OF CALF PENS. 

There is a temptation when a calf is doing well to give a 
little more food, in the hope of making it do a little 
better, but it is a mistake to try to force a young animal 
ahead of its ability to digest. 

The young calf should be tied up from the first. A 
small halter or a leather strap around the neck, with a 
ring, and a light rope with a swivel snaj:* hook in it, may 
be used to fasten it in the pen. Calves should never run 
together loose in a pen, or they will learn to sack each 
other, and thus contract habits which will be trouble- 
some afterwards. In our dairy the calf pens are divided 
into separate stalls, as shown at figure 21. These are 



188 THE dairyman's MANtJAL. 

five by seven feet, and are separated by barred partitions, 
so that the calves can see each other. The partitions are 
four feet high. A rack for hay is made on one side and 
a small box near it is for meal. A slide door is made in 
the front (a, a) large enough for the calf to put its head 
through easily, and in front of it is a shelf with a recep- 
tacle for a pail, in which milk is given to the calf. The 
calves are thus fed very easily and quickly, the milk 
being brought to the pens in a deep pail holding fourteen 
quarts, and enough for four or five calves is poured into 
the feeding pails and each pail is set in its place. The 
slide door is then opened and the calf drinks its milk 
without any trouble, and cannot upset the pail. A few 
days' training is required before the calf learns all tliis, 
but with patience the lesson is soon taught. Calves are 
phenomenally stupid, and much patience is required to 
manage them ; but it is far easier to train a calf kindly 
than with force and by beating it. When a calf learns 
not to fear its owner, and experiences only kindness, it is 
a most affectionate animal, and this trait is exhibited 
ever afterwards as long as the same kind treatment is 
given to it. For the comfort and profit in managing a 
dairy this general system of management is indispensable. 
At times it is certainly trying to one's patience to worry 
along with self-willed and stupid calves, but it should 
not be forgotten that our training is contrary to their 
instincts, and we are teaching them to acquire new habits 
and unnatural ways. Rightly considered, it is amazing 
that a kind and gentle owner may so soon reduce a young 
creature to submission to his will and wholly change *» 
its natural inclinations. The dairyman, however, should 
be able to control his own instincts and passions, and 
then will be better able to train his calves to become 
docile, patient, gentle and useful cows. 

When six months old and done with milk-feeding the 
young heifers arc moved into the cow stable, where they 



KEAKIiq"G CALVES FOR THE DAIRY. 189 

are fastened, fed and treated as the cows are, being 
handled, brushed and cleaned daily. This they submit 
to without trouble, having been used to it in the calf 
pens. At from nine to twelve months old they are bred, 
and come in when from eighteen to twenty months old. 
The feeding of a heifer should be liberal. She should 
have regular rations of the feed prepared and given to 
the cows, and about half as much of it will be eaten 
profitably. Liberal feeding of good food develops the 
digestive functions, and the training of a heifer for the 
dairy should be such as to encourage the healthful dis- 
posal of as much food as possible. It does not matter if 
the heifer should get fat, if the growth is not stunted by 
it. The gradual development of the normal figure of 
the model cow should be watched, and as long as this 
development is going on satisfactorily the feeding may be 
persevered in. Excessive fatness, however, is a bar to use- 
fulness in the dairy, and when heifers with this tendency 
to fat come in there is usually some defect which spoils 
the animal for a cow. One such instance occurred in 
the author's dairy. It was a pure bred Ayrshire, which 
as a calf and up to twelve months old gave every prom- 
ise of making an excellent cow. But she became very 
fat, and up to her coming in grew rapidly in size and 
rotundity. On calving the milk was blood and nothing 
else, and the calf would not touch it. She was kept for. 
four months in the hope that the milk organs would be- 
come free from their unusual condition, but the secre- 
tion of blood instead of milk continued. The secretion 
was not milk at all, but an albuminous fluid highly 
charged wdth the red corj)uscles of the blood. Cream or 
a fatty substance separated from the fluid, but it was red- 
dish yellow in color, and made almost red butter. It 
was a remarkable instance of abnormal action of the 
milk glands, which had no power to secrete milk from 
the blood passing through them, but merely discharged 



190 THE dairyman's MAIS"UAL. 

the blood in an almost pure state. The cow was finallj' 
slaughtered as an incurable. If a heifer becomes fat on 
liberal feeding, instead of enlarging her general growth 
and retaining the most desirable form, she should be dis- 
carded from the herd. It is one of the valuable uses of 
the method of training heifers, that as they develop by 
age and growth their future character becomes indicated. 
AVhen the heifer approaches the period of calving, the 
udder and teats are frequently handled, and she is made 
familiar with the milk pail and the oj^eration of milking. 
When she comes into the stable a cow there is no trouble 
with her. 

The training of heifers for their duties in the dairy 
should be a constant care of the dairyman. Vicious ani- 
mals, which kick, hold up their milk, suck themselves, 
and practice the other usual vices of disorderly cows, are 
all made so by want of, or misdirected, training. The 
first lesson the calf learns should be affection for its 
owner, fearlessness, and docility. Having never been 
maltreated it has no sense of fear and accepts the atten- 
tions of its owner without alarm. Receiving nothing 
but kindness and its food from him, it is always ready 
to meet him with eagerness, and soon learns to come 
at his call. Its natural instincts are even readily con- 
trollable, because its acquired docility accustoms it to 
give way to the management of its owner, and it never 
practices those troublesome vices which are intolerable 
in a dairy. It becomes in every respect a domesticated 
animal, and to attain this result, with all the comfort 
and advantages it involves, should bo the constant care 
of the dairyman whose crop of calves is being har- 
vested. Kindness and gentleness in the owner are in- 
dispensable to these virtues in his cattle. 



MILK. 



191 



CHAPTER XV. 



MILK. 



Milk is an exceedingly complex compound liquid. It 
is a saccharine and caseous solution, having a slightly 
alkaline reaction caused by the presence in it of a small 
quantity of free soda. It also contains some little albu- 
men, which varies, sometimes considerably, and this 
albumen gives to it a more or less viscous character. It 
has the following average composition, as given by Bec- 
querel and Vernois. 

Composition of Milk of Various Animals. 



1,000 parts. Human. \ Core. 


Goaf. 1 Sheep. 


JIare. ( As'^. 


Soiv. 


Dog. 


Specific' 

gravity- 1032.67 
Water..-- 889.08 
Solids---- 110.92 

Fat 26.66 

Caseine & 

albumen 39.^4 
Sugar.---! 43.64 
Salts(ash)-I 1.38 


1033.38 
864.06 
135.94 

36.12 

55.15 

38.03 

6.64 


1033.5 
844.9 
155.1 

56.87 

55.14 

36.91 

6.18 


1041.0 

832.3 
167.7 
51.31 

69.78 
39.43 
.7.16 


1033.74 

904.3 

95.7 

24.36 

33.35 

32.76 

5.23 


1034.6 
890.1 
109.9 

18.53 

35.65 

50.46 

5.24 


854l9 
145.1 

19.50 

84.5 
30.3 
10.9 


1041.6 
772.1 
227.9 

87.95 

116.88 

15.29 

7.80 



As milk is seen to vary considerably in different races 
of animals, so it varies quite as much in different indi- 
viduals of the same race. Thus Dr. Sharpless of Massa- 
chusetts, in a paper presented to the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences, gives the following analyses of 
different samples of cow's milk : 

Analyses of Cow's Milk. 

No. 4. 



Sugar 

Caseine 

Ash 

Fat 

Water 



i No. 1. 


No. 2. 


No. 3. 


3.96 


3.94 


4.19 


3.64 


4.81 


5.23 


.45 


.65 


.72 


3.30 


2.47 


4.39 


88.65 


88.13 


85.57 



4.82 

3.54 

.57 

2.71 

88.36 



In my own dairy I have found the fat in the milk to 
vary from 2.15 to 6.38 per cent in different cows. The 
wide variations show how easily a dairyman may lose 



192 



THE DAIRYMAlJf's MAi^UAL. 



money by keeping inferior cows in his herd, and, by the 
neglect of testing each cow's milk separately, cause the 
good ones to sui^port the inferior ones. Moreover, it is 
by no means the handsomest cow or the largest milker 
that produces the most butter. It is a curious fact, as 
showing a j)hysiological anomaly, that not only do cows 
differ in this respect, but that the different glands of a 
cow vary in the quality of the milk yielded. Thus one 
quarter, or separate gland, of the udder will, in the same 
cow, most always yield milk richer in fat than another. 
The following figures, given in the paper of Dr. Sharp- 
less above referred to, show this. The milk was drawn 
from each teat separately, and separately examined. The 
cow was a pure A3a'shire. 



Fer cent of 



Cream . . . | 25 

Specific gi-avity. 

Sugar.- 

Caseine 

Ash 

Fat -.. 

Water 



Fdght 


Left 


Right 


forward 


fortoard 


rear 


teat. 


teat. 


teat. 


25. 


42. 


29. 


1.025 


1.024 


1.026 


4.09 


2.18 


3.44 


4.48 


6.58 


5.00 


.68 


.61 


.66 


5.59 


4.43 


4.39 


85.16 


86.20 


86.51 



Left 
rear 
teat. 

"24^ 
1.028 
4.20 
5.59 
.67 
3.84 

85.70 



To affirm these unexpected results the milk of an- 
other cow was examined and determined as follows : 



Per cent of 



Cream - 

Specific gi-avity. 

SuG:ar 

Caseine -.- 

Ash 

Fat.. 

Water 



Right 


Left 


Rigid 


forward 


forward 


rear 


teat. 


teat. 


teat. 
13. 


14. 


11. 


1.032 


1.031 


1.030 


4.90 


5.0 


4.72 


3.53 


3.42 


3.61 


.59 


.57 


.61 


3.32 


3.0 


2.73 


87.66 


88.01 


88.33 



Left 

rear 
teat. 



10. 
1.031 
4.87 
3.48 
.64 
2.13 

88.87 



The coincidence in both cases as regards the left rear 
teat, in which the fat product was nearly fifty per cent 
less than that of the right forward teat, is very inter- 
esting. While this is not a really practical matter, yet;, 



MILK. 



193 



as a scientific fact, it is well worthy of remark here. 
To prove the truth of the well-founded popular impres- 
sion that the first drawn milk is poorer in fat than the 
last drawn, or ''the strippings," Dr. Sharpless tested 
another pure Ayrshire cow with the following result : 



Specific gravity.. 

Cream 

Sugar .. 

Caseine 

Ash 

Fat 



1.029 

6 per cent. 
4.49 
3.06 
.54 
1.78 
Water 90.13 



Mrst third. 



Second third. Last third. 



1.032 I 1.027 

9 per cent. 11 per cent. 



4.80 

4.25 

.58 

3.03 

87.34 



4.50 

3.90 

.54 

4.03 

87.03 



Dr. Sharpless' conclusion, after making a large number 
of tests, was that no one cow's milk is as uniform in com- 
position as the whole milk of a herd, for as the cows will 
vary either way a general average of remarkable consist- 
ency is procured. This will no doubt accord with the 
general experience of dairymen. But then there are 
some cows, especially among the Jerseys — as was the case 
with the selected test cow Nellie, referred to in Chapter 
XII., and which was chosen for her uniformity in pro- 
duct — which yary little in the quality of the milk under 
the same feeding and other conditions. 

Milk is the final result of gestation and is coincident 
with parturition. For some days previous to calving, 
preparations are being made in the mammary glands, 
which is commonly called the udder, for the secretion of 
the milk, which N"ature intends as a provision for the 
support of the calf. This preparation of the glands 
consists in an sedematous tumefaction, or a soft pulpy 
swelling by which the udder is largely increased in size. 
A thin serum can often be expressed from the teats during 
this preparatory period, Avhich begins from a month to two 
months before the calf is born. This preparatory period 
is much longer with a heifer w4th its first calf, and 
usually begins a short time after the beginning of gesta- 



194 THE dairyma:n's makual. 

tioD. After the first calf, a considerable falling oS in 
the milk, and a stoppage of the secretion, accompany the 
beginning of this period with some cows, but with others 
the railk flow continues for a much longer time. The 
character of the milk, however, changes considerably, 
and the salts in it are much increased in quantity, so 
much so as to considerably affect its taste. 

When the calf is born a sudden change occurs in the 
milk glands. They become hard and tense, and very 
sensitive from the large accession of blood which they re- 
ceive. The formation of cell matter is now at its maxi- 
mum, and a sudden breaking down of it into a strongly 
albuminous fluid containinga large quantity of salts takes 
place. "With some cows this is accompanied by a serious 
disturbance of the nervous system and active febrile con- 
ditions, which produce the generally fatal disorder known 
as milk fever. This disturbance approaches its maxi- 
mum during the change which is occurring in the char- 
acter of this first milk, or, as it is called, *^ colostrum," 
and which lasts about four days. In fatal cases death 
occurs on the third or fourth day after calving. 

The colostrum is a viscid, yellowish, sweetish fluid, 
disagreeable to the taste, and of greater density than ordi- 
nary milk, having a specific gravity 1.063. It coagulates 
on heating, and on this account is often 
t*-^ ®T> ^^^®^ ^^ England for making custards, 
^. which need no eggs and are extremely 

c^- ^ g^.jjj j^^^ q£ ^ jjjo,|-i ygiiQ^ color, incliuinsr 

^' * to a reddish tinge. Butter made from it 

is a deep reddish orange color and soft, and soon becomes 
rancid. The fat globules of colostrum are smaller than 
those in ordinary milk and are fewer in number ; but 
there are large numbers of disc-shaped corpuscles (figure 
22, a, a) generally agglomerated in masses in a tenacious 
viscid matter, some having nuclei (figure 22, b), and 
among these are to be observed many peculiar bodies 



MILK. 



195 



called 'leucocytes," which are endowed with a power of 
motion. The composition of colostrum is given by 

Bonssingault as follows : 

Water... 75.8 

Albumen and caseine 15.0 

Fat---. 2.6 



Sugar 
Salts.. 



3.6 
3.0 



Total 100.0 



Dumas gives the composition of colostrum of the vari- 
ous animals mentioned as below, viz. : 



In l,m) parts. 


Cow. 


Ass. 


Goat 


Water 


80.33 
2.60 

15.07 
2.0 


82.84 
0.56 

11.60 
0.70 
4.30 


64 10 


Fat 


5 20 


Albumen 


24 5 


Mucus 


3.0 


Sugar 


3.20 



Milk, it is admitted by all physiologists, is produced 
by a fatty degeneration of the epithelial cells of the 
gland follicles, in which the cells are very greatly multi- 
plied and developed during lactation. The cells rupture 
and set free the fat globules. This theory is rendered 
liighly probable by the similarity between milk and 
other animal products of the glandular follicles, or the 
breaking down of cellular tissue, as mucous and true pus, 
tlie composition of which are very much like that of co- 
lostrum. Thus pus from a mammary abscess in a cow 
has been found to consist of the following, viz. : 

Water --. 87.94 

Fatty matter • 2.65 

Albumen 8.36 

Lactates of soda, potassa, lime and phosphates 0,90 

Loss 0.15 

100.00 

The frequent production of pus in the cow's udder, 
which often goes under the name of ropy milk, is a very 
easy transformation of the products of the gland follicles 
due to disturbance of the function of lactation. In co- 



196 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

lostrum the epithelial cells have not undergone this de- 
structive change, the walls are still intact and contain 
their oil grannies, and thus constitute the corpuscles of 
this fluid. In the colostrum albumen takes the place of 
caseine in the perfect milk, but a reverse change is 
slowly made and completed about the fourth day. Al ^ 
the end of lactation, when the animal is again pregnant, 
the milk again loses its caseine and gains albumen, and 
is consequently easily coagulable by heat and causes 
many serious difficulties in the dairy which are not easily 
understood by the dairyman who is unfamiliar with 
these facts. The sugar also disappears in part or wholly, 
and the leucocytes increase as in the colostrum. 

About the fourth or fifth day after j^arturition the 
milk becomes normal in character and is fitted for gen- 
eral use. It however always contains more or less al- 
bumen, and this is a common source of trouble in the 

dairy, especially in win- 
ter, when heat is used to 
effect the necessary acid- 
ity or ripening of the 
cream. The albumen is 
thus solidified and causes 
the troublesome white 
Fig. 23. specks in the butter. 

When the milk glands first assume their tumefied or 
swollen condition, just previous to parturition, the lob- 
ules of the glands become filled with a largely increased 
number of cells (figure 23, Z>), and these greatly increase 
the size of the udder. Previous to this condition the 
lobules are shrunken (figure 23, a) and the formation 
and constant destruction of cells, as they are formed, 
are occurring continuously, and it is only when the 
udder is charged and filled with milk that it is distended. 
But when the active development of cells is in progress, 
the lobules of the glands are enlarged and do not break 





MILK. 197 

down immediately, but retaining their increased size 
they cause the udder to become hard and much extended 
in size. This hardness of the udder is often supposed 
to be caused by some disorder, and much unnecessary 
trouble is often borrowed on this account. When, how- 
ever, the process of lactation is under way, and the 
glandular follicles begin to break down copiously and 
the secretion of milk increases, and especially when the 
colustrum period has passed, the udder becomes less 
hard and tense, excepting when full of milk, and loose 
and soft as soon as the milk is drawn. 

The udder of the cow consists of four distinct and 
separate glands commonly called quarters, each one con- 
sisting of a mass of lobules, among which are a large 
number of ducts small at the extremities, but gradually 
connecting and forming large ducts, which in their turn 
form sinuses or reservoirs in which the milk gathers as it 
is secreted. The largest of these reservoirs is immedi- 
ately above the base of the teats. The teats form the 
outlets for the principal lactiferous ducts or milk chan- 
nels, and these connect with an orifice at the extremity 
of the teat through which the milk is drawn. 

In structure each of the glands of the udder consist of: 
first, an envelope of yellow elastic fibrous tissue ; second, 
the glandular tissue formed into lobules ; third, the lac- 
tiferous ducts or milk channels ; fourth, the milk reser- 
voirs or the sinuses ; and fifth, the excretory canal or 
orifice of the teat. 

The elastic envelope is extremely strong and is formed 
of wide bands detached from the abdominal muscles ; it 
has numerous prolongations which cross each other in 
the mass of glandular tissue, forming partitions which 
divide this into lobes and lobules, which are thus some- 
what independent of each other, and are firmly sup- 
ported without pressing upon each other. This sepa- 
ration and partial isolation of these parts of the udder 



198 THE DAIRYMAN^S MANUAL. 

are such tliat one or more of the parts may become dis- 
eased or deranged in function without iuYolving the 
other parts. Thus one or more of the lobules may for 
some cause or other become deranged, and secrete blood 
from the numerous capillary vessels which pass through 
it and form the connecting links between the arterial 
and venous circulation ; or the cellular tissue may break 
down into albuminous serum or pus, which being dis- 
charged with the milk causes it to become ropy or forms 
adherent strings which are ejected with the milk ; at the 
same time all the other parts of the gland may be acting 
normally. 

The glandular tissue consists of vesicles clustered like 
grapes on a stalk around the finest lactiferous tubes or 
smaller ducts, which are the ultimate terminations of the 
lactiferous ducts. Each of these tubes forms a cul-de-sac 
or a channel closed at one end, which opens into others 
to form enlarged tubes which converge together, and 
so on to form the lactiferous ducts. The vesicles {acini) 
of the lobules as well as the tubes are lined with epithe- 
lium or membranous tissue, which become infiltrated 
with fat during lactation (figure 23, h). 

The lactiferous ducts are at first exceedingly numerous 
but gradually converging, like the branches of a tree, 
unite to form larger channels which flow into the sinuses 
or milk reservoirs. 

The sinuses or reservoirs are situated just above the 
base of the teat, and are usually two in number, one in 
front and one behind, but sometimes in cows with highly 
developed udder and milking capacity there are three or 
four. They communicate with each other and are pro- 
longed into the teat by separate and distinct excretory 
terminal canals whose orifices are quite small and gather 
at the end of the teat forming an outlet (figure 24). 

The excretory canals are larger at the upper part than 
at the extremity; the orifices are usually behind one 



MILK. 



1^0 



anofher and about a tenth of an inch apart. They are 
lined with a fine and highly sensitive membrane which is 
continuous with the skin. The teat varies in form with 
use and is subject to considerable alteration by manipu- 
lation ; it is composed of longitudinal fibers which at the 
lend are capable of a sort of erection under the influence 
of stimulus, and thus act as a sphincter to close the ori- 
fice and prevent the constant and passive flow of milk. 
The udder (or udders, there being really four of them 
in the cow) is made up, in addition to the organs de- 
scribed above, of connective tissue, arteries, veins, ca- 
pillary vessels, nerves and absoi'beots. It is supplied 
with blood by the external 



,, Ir 



<*-_«, 



pudic artery and requires 
two sets of veins to com- 
plete the circulation, one 
deep, which follows the ar- 
teries, and one superficial, 
which converges into the 
great abdomioal vein which 
passes from the udder near 
the skin and enters the ab- 
domen behind the umbilli- 
cal region. This large vein 
is commonly called the milk 
vein, and is rightly supposed 
to indicate by its prominence the larger milking capacity 
of the cow. 

When gestation is not going on the above described 
glandular culs-des-sacs and tissue connected with them 
are shrunken and contracted (figure 23, a), the lining 
membrane is shriveled and folded upon itself and cov- 
ered only by contracted epithelium. When gestation has 
progressed to a certain stage the vesicles are enlarged 
and new ones are developed, the epithelium expands, be- 
comes globular in shape, and is charged with fat granules. 




200 THE dairyman's MAKUAL. 

filling the vesicles ; thus the entire gland becomes en- 
larged in size (figure 23, h) and firm to the touch, and 
as parturition approaches this increased size and firmness 
are intensified, until delivery takes place, when the vesi- 
cles break down, the albuminous serum with the fat 
globules escape, gather into the lactiferous tubes, and 
collect in the sinuses or reservoirs. This process goes on 
more or less actively in proportion to the natural ability 
and the liberal nutrition of the cow to supply the mate- 
rials for the enormous loss of tissue. 

Milk is easily analyzed and its constituents separated, 
and every dairyman should be able to perform this oper- 
ation for himself. The separation of the fat is the mat- 
ter of greatest moment, although it is quite as often 
desirable to know the quantity of caseine contained in it. 
It is necessary to procure a pair of delicate scales with 
weights and measures of the metric or decimal system, 
grams for weighing, and a one hundred centimeter rule 
for measuring. One hundred cubic centimeters of the 
milk at sixty degrees of temperature are measured and 
weighed, and the weights noted ; this milk is set apart 
for the cream. Five centimeters are then weighed, evap- 
orated to dryness, and weighed again ; the difference is 
the water and the weight the total solids. The fat is then 
dissolved out by benzine and the loss after the benzine 
has been wholly evaporated is the quantity of fats. There 
are then left the caseine, sugar and salts. The residue 
left by the benzine is weighed and is then burned com- 
pletely. The last result, the ash, is then weighed. The 
caseine and sugar are then to be determined. Twenty- 
five centimeters of the skimmed milk are curdled by the 
addition of acetic acid, and the curd separated, dried and 
weighed. The whey may be then evaporated, washed 
in benzine, and then weighed and burned ; the loss is the 
sugar. In this way every constituent may be easily calcu- 
lated. But the character of milk is as yet far from having 



MILK. 201 

been fully explained, for when the summer heats produce 
a most active chemical action in all organic matter, 
this unstable substance, milk, becomes very troublesome 
to the dairyman. Milk consists of a solution of easeine 
in a sweet liquid, which is somewhat alkaline. The av- 
erage four per cent of sugar and the four per cent of 
easeine are both held in solution in the milk, which also 
contains a sufficient quantity of free soda to make it dis- 
tinctly alkaline. This free soda enables the easeine to 
remain in solution, and when it is taken up by any acid 
in the milk, and rendered inert, or neutral, the easeine 
is at once precipitated, and the milk curdles, because of 
this precipitation or separation of the easeine. The min- 
eral matter of milk consists of the following substances : 

IN 1,000 POUNDS OF MILK THERE ARE OF 

Founds. Pounds. 

Phosphate of lime -... 2.31 to 3.U 

Phosp)hate of magnesia .43 to .6-1 

PhosiDhate of oxide of iron ...07 to .07 

Chloride of potassium .1.44 to 1.83 

Chloride of sodium .24 to .34 

Free soda .42 to .45 

Total 1 : 4.90 to 6.77 

All this matter is neutral or chemically inert or inac- 
tive excepting'the free soda, which is at all times ready 
and eager to combine with any acid which may exist in 
the milk. 

Sugar is a very unstable substance, and is liable to change 
under very little persuasion. A saccharine solution very 
easily oxidizes and changes to. acid at the expense of the 
carbon which is combined with the oxygen, and produces 
carbonic acid, which escapes, leaving an acid liquid in- 
stead of a sweet one. Really, the sugars and some acids 
derived from them are compounds of carbon and water. 
Thus common susrar consists of twelve atoms of carbon 
and eleven atoms of water, and milk sugar of twelve 
atoms of carbon and twelve of water, while acetic acid, 
made by the fermentation of cane sugar, consists of two 



20^ THE DAIRYMAN^S MAlfUAL. 

atoms of carbon and two of water, and lactic acid, made 
by the fermentation of milk, is composed of three atoms 
of carbon and three of water. To put these in a table 
will show the character of these substances more clearly, 
thus : 

One atom of cane sugar consists of C]2H220ii. 
One atom of milk sugar consists of C12H04O12. 
Six atoms of acetic acid consists of C12H24O12. 
Four atoms of lactic acid consists of Ci2H240i2- 
One atom of water consists of HaO. 

Thus chemically the addition of one atom of water to 
cane sugar changes it to milk sugar, which is much less 
sweet than cane sugar, and by breaking up one atom of 
milk sugar into six parts the result is acetic acid or yin- 
egar, and by breaking it up into four parts lactic acid is 
produced. 

The last-mentioned fact is of the most interest to us 
in the present consideration, for it shows how very 
easily milk is changed from an alkaline to an acid condi- 
tion and how the difficulties inherent to h^ business 
are precipitated upon the dairyman. 

When by reason of some controlling influence, it may 
be the heat of the weather, the condition of the atmos- 
phere produced by heat, the condition of the cows 
caused by food, heat, or any other accideilt, there occurs 
a chemical breaking up or separation of the atoms 
of the sugar in the milk, lactic acid is produced. 
This acid is neutralized by the free soda as fast as it is 
produced, and lactate of soda is formed until the soda is 
all taken up, when the acid accumulates in the milk, and 
then serious difficulties arise. But just here it may be 
worth while to notice that this same acid (lactic) is pro- 
duced in various substances which are fed to cows, and 
very freely in the warm weather. The acid of sauer- 
kraut or cabbage is lactic ; it is also formed in the fer- 
mentation of moist corn-meal, cotton-seed meal, bran, 
middlings and oatmeal, and of green clover, grass, wet 
straw and hay, and other vegetable matters which are 



MILK. 203 

fed to cows. And this acid may very easily be taken 
into the system of the cow and directly affect the con- 
dition of the milk, causing it to be distinctly acid in- 
stead of alkaline, as it should be naturally. Moreover, 
as this acid may be very easily, and is no doubt often, 
produced in the course of the digestion of the food in the 
cow's stomach, it is readily seen hoAV most unexpected 
difficulties may arise in the dairy in the summer to vex 
and discomfit the dairyman. 

Acid is the most treacherous and effective agent of 
change in milk, cream, and butter. It should be 
watched for at every turn and neutralized by every pos-* 
sible means. The addition to the milk of a small quan- 
tity of soda will take up the acid as fast as it is formed, 
and will remain as lactate of soda in the milk in an inert 
and harmless condition ; but to avoid the presence of 
this acid the food and every utensil used in the stable, 
feeding process, and in the care of the milk should be 
kept most rigidly free from acidity. 

But another fact still remains to illustrate the excess- 
ive instability of milk. Caseine, of which about four per 
cent is dissolved in the milk, is itself able to change mJlk 
sugar into this milk (lactic) acid. Many nitrogenous 
substances possess this peculiar power. Gluten of wheat, 
animal membranes, as a piece of bladder or of the gut or 
stomach of an animal, as well as the legumin of peas 
and beans and the caseine of milk, exert this effect. 
Some time or enabling effect, however, is required to de- 
velop this property in caseine, and exposure to air and 
warmth for a certain period are sufficient to develop it. 

And upon this fact another most important one bears, 
viz., that caseine in this active condition has the effect 
of changing milk sugar first into lactic acid, and then the 
lactic acid into butyric acid, which is the active agent of 
rancidity in butter, and is the cause of the greatest diffi- 
culties which the dairyman meets with in the warm 



204 THE DAIRYMAN^S MAITUAL. 

season. This acid is also produced by the direct action 
of caseine upon the fats of the butter themselves, chang- 
ing the harder fats into the more oily ones, and thus 
causing the butter to be soft and of inferior quality. The 
oxygen of the atmosphere has also the same result. 
These facts show how necessary it is to preserve the. ut- 
most freedom from any remains of stale milk or cream 
upon the utensils, to preserve the milk from excess 
of heat and from currents of air, as well as from the en- 
trance of any injurious matter into the cow. 

Milk is thus a serous or albuminous fluid, in which 
a varying quantity of sugar, caseine, and mineral salts 
are dissolved and in which a varying quantity of fat or 
oil in the form of very minute globules are mechanically 
suspended in the manner of an emulsion (figure 25, d). 

.'»,. The sugar, caseine and fat are each of 

''I^'ol't,^ T) them the basis of a profitable manufacture; 
%•/%•* the sugar is separated and used in various 

ways as milk sugar ; the caseine and fat 
-<^s^/ are made into cheese, and the fat is gath- 

me^^ ^ Gred and made into butter. When left at 

rest for a time the fatty globules rise to 

Fig. 25. ^jjg surface, together with some of ad- 

herent milk, by virtue of their lighter specific grav- 
ity, and controlled as to time by various conditions 
of the milk and the temperature, they form what 
we know as cream (figure 25, e). These fat glob- 
ules were supposed to consist of a pellicle or film of 
caseine enclosing a granule of fat, as it is set free 
by the breaking down of the vesicles or acini of the 
glandular lobules of the udder. This supposition 
was held to be unreasonable and erroneous by the au- 
thor, who opposed this view of it as supported by 
Professor Arnold, the eminent authority upon the 
science and practice of dairying, at a meeting of the 
American Dairymen's Association in 1872. Since then 



MILK. 205 

the inherent simplicity of the fat globule floating free in 
the milk as an emulsion, and without any coating or 
pellicle whatever, has been demonstrated by patient and 
painstaking investigation, microscopical and chemical, 
by the author, and by otliers, notably by the New York 
State Agricultural Experiment Station, and this view of 
it is now accepted by all American dairy experts. This 
true and reasonable view greatly simplifies the manage- 
ment of milk and the churning of creani, and clears up 
some difficulties and mistakes in regard to the behavior 
of cream in the churn. 

The peculiar character of milk, being a direct product 
of the cellular substance and fat in the animal, gives 
much importance to the consideration of its uses as food, 
and of the proper treatment of the cow. Any disorder 
arising from bad food or water, or disease, directly affects 
the quality of the milk. This is conspicuously shown by 
the prevalent disease, so frequently fatal, known as milk 
sickness, which is induced in persons by the use of milk, 
cheese or butter from cows which have been exposed 
to the peculiar infection which produces this disorder. 
The common disease known as ^*^ aphtha," or '^^foot and 
mouth " disease, is communicated to persons by the 
milk of cows suffering from it ; so is tuberculosis, an- 
thrax, and other diseases of the blood. Milk even ab- 
sorbs the germs of febrile diseases which are prevalent 
near the dairy, or to t-he infection of which it has been 
exposed ; scarlet fever and typhoid fever have thus 
been spread widely through localities by the use of milk 
from a farm upon which cases of these diseases have 
occurred. This characteristic of milk is serious and so 
prevailing that the greatest caution in respect of it 
should be observed, both by dairymen and those persons 
who purchase milk. 

The importance of the subject renders it desirable here 
to say a few words in regard to the common use of the 



206 THE daieyman's manual. 

lactometer for testing the quality of milk. The use of 
the lactometer, or rather the hydrometer or water meas- 
ure, for testing milk is a dekision and a snare. This in- 
strument is constructed for measuring the relative spe- 
' cific gravity of liquids, pure or distilled water, water at a 
temperature of sixty degrees being taken as the standard. 
The so-called lactometer or milk measure is in its very 
name a fraud and a delusion, because it does not in 
reality measure milk, but merely the water in it and the 
specific gravity of the fluid which shows the quantity of 
solids in solution or suspension in it. Milk is a complex 
fluid containing a certain proportion of water, mixed 
with an uncertain proportion of various salts, some case- 
ine and some sugar which are heavier than water, and 
some fat and volatile oils which are lighter than water. 
Now, it is an utter impossibility for any measurer of 
specific gravity to ascertain what the true relative gravity 
or weight of a liquid should be when it contains every 
time a different quantity or proportion of each one of 
these added substances and each one differing somewhat 
in its own specific gravity. For instance, we take the 
milk of a poor cow, that will not show more than three 
or four per cent of cream, and ^^ measure" it — as the term 
^'lactometer" really means — and find that this instrument 
marks 1.030, which is considered to indicate an excellent 
quality of milk, and this because the milk contains the 
normal amount of other solids besides fat, and these are 
all heavier or of a greater specific gravity than the fat. 
Hence this poor milk would pass muster with the inspec- 
tor. But if we take the milk of a Jersey or Guernsey cow 
with fifteen or twenty per cent of cream in it, and sub- 
ject it to the lactometer, it may mark only 1.028, and it 
is an understood rule with milk inspectors that milk of 
so low a specific gravity as 1.028 is suspicious and sub- 
jects the seller to the pains and penalties of arrest, and, 
on conviction, fine and disgrace. A painful case occurred 



CREAM. 207 

in the authors experience. A milk seller, misled by the 
popularity of Jersey cows, purchased some for use in his 
dairy, which was kept to supply milk for consumers in 
a large town. An inspector one day demanded a test of 
his milk and on findiiw it to mark only 1.0^8 he arrested 
the milkman and led him to the magistrate. The author 
was summoned to give testimony in regard to the quality 
of the milk and proved by actual test that some of it 
contained 16'/, per cent of cream, and that the mixture 
of this rich milk with the other milk reduced the gravity 
of the whole to this low average ; but that the milk was 
actually richer than other kinds of a higher gravity. 
The court adjudged that the milk was not up to stand- 
ard, as the inspector — a very ignorant man — swore that 
the lactometer was a reliable test of the quality. The 
justice (?), no better informed, convicted the innocent 
man, who was so affected by the injustice and the im- 
puted crime, and the disgrace of it, that he gave up his 
business and in a few days after committed suicide. 
This is but one of several cases known to the author of 
convictions by the evidence of this unworthy, fraudulent, 
and false test and witness. The only reliable test of 
milk is a chemical analysis or such an examination as 
has been previously described. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
CREAM. 

Cream is the fatty portion of the milk, which rises to 
the top when the milk stands at rest. The difference in 
the specific gravity of cream and milk necessarily causes 
this separation ; indeed to some extent this separation is 
partially made in the reservoirs of the udder, for it is a 
well established facfc that the first drawn milk is less 



208 THE dairymaid's manual. 

rich in cream, or fat, than that drawn at the end of the 
milking. This has been shown in the previous chapter. 
The specific gravity of cream is about 1.020, that of 
milk with the cream about 1.030, that of milk without 
the cream 1.035, so that the difference in weight of an 
equal bulk of cream and milk is one and one-half per 
cent. This is sufficient to cause a very rajjid rising or 
floating of the cream, were it not for some obstacles 
which prevent this separation. Milk is a viscous or 
adherent fluid, and consequently any lighter body im- 
mersed in it would have to resist this adhesive force in 
the act of rising to the surface. Again, the globules of 
fat in milk are extremely small, varying in size from 
y45no ^^ V2500 P^^'^ ^f ^^ ^^^^ ^^ diameter, hence the force 
of gravity is very slight and is not sufficient to force 
them through an, adhesive fluid except quite slowly. 

The cream rises more rapidly under certain circum- 
stances, as when the milk is set in deep pails in cold 
water at a temperature of forty-five degrees, when all the 
cream is raised through eighteen or twenty inches of 
milk in twelve hours ; while at sixty degrees it will 
require thirty-six hours to rise completely through three 
inches of milk set in shallow pans. Also when the milk 
is diluted with water the cream rises more quickly, 
because the milk becomes 1-ess adherent. The low 
tem]3erature of forty-five degrees reduces the milk to 
almost its maximum density, which is at thirty-nine 
degrees, hence the cream is comparatively lighter than 
at a higher temperature. This fact is taken advantage 
of in the use of the deep pails and low temperature for 
setting milk for cream, an innovation which has been of 
the greatest value in butter-making. The cream raised 
in this manner is, however, more fluid and has more 
milk mixed with it than that raised in shallow pans ; 
but this is also an advantage, because it is then in the 
best condition in respect of fluidity for the churn. 



CREAM. 209 

Cream is simply the butter globules of the milk 
gathered into adherent masses (figure 52, Chapter XX.), 
together with a small quantity of the milk held by mo- 
lecular attraction, among and between the fat globules. 
Milk consists really of a colorless liquid in which are 
suspended an enormous number of minute globules. As 
has been stated in the previous chapter, some erroneous 
views have been held in regard to the character of these 
globules which constitute the fatty portion of the milk, 
and some discussion is still made by misinformed per- 
sons in support of the now exploded theory, that these 
globules are enclosed in a thin membrane of albuminous 
matter. It may be interesting to readers to know by 
what experiments the true nature of these globules may 
be demonstrated. 

As milk is a serous viscous fluid, and adherent and 
adhesive, when air is forced into it it forms and pro- 
duces a cohesive froth, consisting of small and large 
air bubbles. This is precisely t!ie character of beer, or 
a solution of soap, gum, syrup; or any other mucilaginous 
or saccharine fluid. ' If a quantity of any of these fluids 
is warmed to the temperature of new milk, or 100°, and a 
small quantity of butter oil is added and thoroughly 
mixed with it, and the mixture is agitated, the oil soon 
separates into small globules, which, when viewed under 
a microscope, appear in every respect precisely similar toi 
the butter globules in milk. This mixture Is known as 
an emulsion, and similar mixtures are commonly used in 
medicine for the purpose of administering oils in a con- 
venient and desirable form. 

When such an emulsion is permitted to remain at rest 
tlie globules rise to the surface slowly and form a cream. 
The appearance of these globules under the microscope 
gives precisely the refractive rings around them which 
have been supposed by inexpert observers to be surround- 



210 THE DAIRYMA:^f's MANUAL. 

ing films, pellicles, coverings, or envelopes of caseous 
matter, enclosing the fat. 

When these emulsions are chnrned at a temperature at 
which the fat is soft and n on- adherent, the globules are 
beaten finer and finer as with cream in the churn under 
those conditions — to be explained hereafter — in which 
the butter will not come. When churned at the ordi- 
nary temperature of the dairy, the fat globules are 
gradually gathered into granules, then into small masses 
or grains, and finally form butter. 

These results happen alike with milk and with arti- 
ficial emulsions, of which the author has experimented 
with several kinds, viz., made with butter, oleomarga- 
rine, lard, cotton-seed oil and olive oil, and the behavior 
of each was precisely the same as that of the others. 
Moreover, the most patient and careful tests and exami- 
nations have all utterly failed to discover one of these 
envelopes, pellicles, shells, or whatever name has been 
given to the imaginary substance, isolated and separated 
from the globules. 

The number of these globules contained in milk of 
average richness in butter is enormous, and they differ in 
this respect considerably with various cows, and as much 
in the size of the globules. Moreover, they differ in the 
same cow as regards size and number when any disturb- 
ing influence occurs to affect the nervous condition of 
the cow, or to excite or to tranquilize her. Thus in a 
cubic millimeter, or about the one-hundredth part of a 
quart, there are nearly 3,000,000 of these globules, thus 
giving about 300,000,000 of them in a quart of milk, 
or 5,000,000 in every cubic inch. 

Cream varies greatly in character, and this variation 
has a most important bearing upon the business of a 
creamery, in which, necessarily, there are many kinds of 
cream gathered from the large number of patrons. The 
following analyses of creiims gathered by Professor 



CREAM. 



m 



Wanklyn from different cows show a most remarkable 
and important variation. 



Per Cent of 


Water. 


Sugar, As7i, 
aiid Caseine 


Fat. 


Sample 1 


73.30 
71.30 
66.36 
60.17 
53 63 
50.00 


8.80 
14.70 
14.77 
6.81 
8.21 
5.63 


19 


Sample 3.. 


14 1 


Sample 3. 


18 87 


Sample 4 


33 03 


Sample 5 


38 17 


Sample 6 


43'.91 



The result of such a difference as this, and it is by no 
means an uncommon occurrence, is of the highest interest 
to dairymen selling cream to the creameries by the inch 
or quart. For if one inch of No. 2 gives a pound of 
butter an inch of No. 4 would give two to five ounces, 
and an inch of No. would give over three pounds. If 
No. 6 gives a pound of butter per inch, No. 2 would give 
less than six ounces. Either the patron would lose or 
gain as his cream might be richer or poorer, and the 
creamery would be subject to the same risk in an 
inverse ratio. In any case there would be great loss 
and injustice to some persons concerned. This uncer- 
tainty is to some extent avoided by the use of what 
is known as the '^oil test,." to be explained hereafter 
(Chapter XIX). 

The methods of separating the cream from Ihe milk 
are three in number, viz., the deep pail system, the 
shallow pan system, and the centrifugal creamer. The 
deep pail system is derived from the method which has 
been common in Sweden for many years, and which is 
there known as the Schwartz method. It is based on 
the fact that the rapid cooling of the milk to a low tem- 
perature and the maintenance of this temperat'ure causes 
the entire separation of the cream in a few hours; the 
lower the temperature the more rapid being the sepa- 
ration. There are several kinds of apparatus in use 
adapted for this system which will be described more 
fully in a succeeding chapter. The use of water from a 



212 THE DAIKYMAN^'S MANUAL. 

permanently cold spring or of ice is necessary under this 
system. The use of this method of raising cream is 
rapidly extending and is indispensable in the manage- 
ment of a public creamery* 

The shallow pan system is the most used, and is practi- 
cally universal in private farm dairies; it has the advan- 
tages of convenience and simplicity, and under the best 
conditions of practice is quite as effective in every way as 
the deep pail system. No water or cooling is required, 
but some method of heating is desirable in the winter. 
x\n airy, dry, deep cellar with thick walls, and well-con- 
structed, as hereafter explained, furnishes every desirable 
or requisite condition for raising the cream under this 
simple system. 

The centrifuge is a comparatively new introduction in 
the busmess of dairying, but its value and adaptation for 
the economical and effective working of dairies large or 
small are boundless. This useful machine operates on 
the principle that centrifugal force in a confined vessel, 
properly constructed, will throw the denser and heavier 
particles of a fluid to the outer circumference, and thus 
compel the lighter particles to seek the center. It is 
really the adaptation of the principle of gravity to a 
horizontal position, compelling the lighter particles to 
rise to the top and the heavier ones to sink to the 
bottom, so to speak, by the exercise of this force exerted 
horizontally instead of perpendicularly. Like all other 
operations of natural dynamic laws it is exceedingly 
simple — when it is understood. 

In considering the nature of cream the cause of its 
varying yellow color is w^orthy of some thought. Why is 
cream jtIIow, and more deeply yellow in some cows than 
in others? The author has given much study to this in- 
teresting question, and with the following result. Yellow 
is a diluted red, or at least red is a concentrated yellow. 
Yellow pigments, when concentrated, always appear to 



MILKIKG AKD MILKING APPARATUS. 2l3 

be red. Annatto in its solid state is red, but its weak 
solution is yellow; the common gamboge is another in- 
stance of this. All butter-coloring preparations, whether 
prepared from annatto, gamboge, or the petals of various 
flowers, are red, but give a yellow color to the butter. The 
fat globules are derived directly from the blood, which is 
red, and in some conditions of the cow the milk is distinct- 
ly red. The color of the cream from colostrum is a deep 
reddish orange, and some butter from Guernsey cows has 
quite as deep an orange color under normal circumstances 
as the colostrum of other cows. Some butter made from 
the cream of colostrum of a Jersey cow in the author's 
dairy, whose butter has been always of a deep yellow 
color, was distinctly reddish. Is not this reddish tinge, 
and the deep yellow approaching the red, then directly 
derived from the coloring matter of the blood, the hema- 
tine from which the blood derives its red corpuscles? As 
this appears to be the case, it explains why the color of 
cream or the fat in the milk is a special attribute of each 
particular cow, and why some cows always produce deep 
yellow butter upon the same food which yields m other 
cows butter which is almost free from color and is nearly 
white. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

MILKING AND MILKING APPARATUS. 

The operation of milking is necessarily based upon the 
peculiar construction of the udder and teats. It is in- 
tended to draw the milk from the udder by the force of 
pressure rightly directed, and compel the natural flow of 
the milk from the secreting lobules into the ducts and 
reservoirs to refill the reservoirs after the pressure has 
been removed. In the act of suction the calf exerts 



^14 THE DAIRYMAN*S MAM UAL. 

this required pressure to force the milk . from the teat 
and intermits this pressure by intervals of rest. Thus 
the milk is drawn by a series of pulsations in much the 
same mechanical way as a water-ram forces water through 
pipes. A study of the structure of the udder and teat, 
with the various reservoirs and ducts leading to these, 
will easily enable the intelligent dairyman to perform 
this operation in the required manner. 

The milk reservoir at the base of the teat is first to be 
emptied by forcing the milk from it downwards through 
the orifice of the teat. This is done by clasping the teat 
close up to the udder in the hand, between the folded 
forefinger and thumb. These are then drawn tightly 
together, and the pressure of these upon the upper part 
of the teat is followed by that from the other fingers in 
succession, so as to make a following pressure from above 
downwards. The motion of the fingers is consecutive 
and not simultaneous; acting in effect as if a set of rollers 
or cams pressed upon the teat from base to extremity. 
This method is indispensable for emptying the teat, for 
if all the fingers are closed at one time the ducts in the 
teat and the orifice from it are closed and the milk will 
be forced upwards into the udder. It is also the most 
rapid and effective way to empty the udder, for it forces 
the milk from the largest reservoir at one act and move- 
ment, and when the pressure is released the expansion 
of this reservoir by the elasticity of its fibrous walls pro- 
duces a vacuum, into which the milk is forced instantly 
by the pressure of air upon the udder. Thus the action 
is similar to that of a force-pump, which alternately 
forces out and draws in a stream, the first by mechani- 
cal pressure upon the water and the second by creating a 
vacuum which is immediately filled by atmospheric pres- 
sure, and the motion by which the stream is forced out 
produces the vacuum and sets in action the pressure of 
the air. This rapid milking is very important, as it 



MILKING AND MILKING APPARATUS. 215 

affects the yield of milk considerably. It has been shown 
that the milk is produced by a breaking down and de- 
composition of the cells of the glandular tissue, which 
are in a condition of engorgement by reason of the 
excited circulation of blood, and the formation of tissue" 
for this large accession of blood through the arteries 
and capillary vessels. Whatever will tend to excite this 
activity of the glandular substance will necessarily in- 
crease the flow of milk. The rapid pressure, gently and 
pleasantly performed upon the udder in the act of milking, 
and the continuous pulsations following each movement 
of the hands, tend to excite the circulation in the udder 
and increase the formation of cells with the fat granules 
contained in them, and as these must necessarily break 
down as fast as they are formed, to prevent tumefaction 
of the glands, the production of milk is the most rapid 
at this time and during the act of milking. There can 
be little doubt that the milk is thus made very rapidly 
while the milking is going on, and the more rapidly the 
milking is performed the more the glands are excited to 
action and the consequent secretion of milk is effected. 
In fact, a cow which yields from twenty-four to forty 
pounds of milk, as some do, at one milking, must neces- 
sarily secrete a large portion of this during the process of 
milking. The ^^ giving down" of the milk, as the pop- 
ular expression has it, is a physiological and actual fact, 
and if so the converse of it, the " holding up of the 
milk," must be equally a fact. 

Hence the milking must be performed in the most 
effective and gentle manner; in such a way as to avoid 
nervous resistance on the part of the cow and secure 
the necessary excitation of the udder. When the milker 
seizes upon the lower part of the teat and simply presses 
the milk out of this, without exerting any pressure upon 
the milk reservoir, shown in the engraving (figure 25) in 
Chapter XV., the milking must be much slower and the 



216 THE dairyman's manual. 

excitation of the glands much less active. Thus the 
rapid milker will always get the most milk. 

Not every cow has teats of the most convenient size 
and shape for this purpose, consequently there must be 
different methods of milking. By taking hold of joart. 
of the udder above the teat and Avhere the large sinus — 
or milk reservoir — is situated, a person with a small 
hand may milk a cow with very short teats, at least two 
inches in length, without diJGficulty. With cows of this 
kind — and many of the best Ayrshire cows have this 
defect — some practice is necessary to make one an adept 
in milking. But from practice the author knows it to 
be not only possible but easily acquired with a little 
patience, except by persons with large broad hands. 
Even then it is easy to milk such cows by using the 
upper joint of the thumb bent down, as a support for 
the teat, instead of the palm of the hand, and then clasp- 
ing the fingers around the teat and pressing it against 
the bent thumb, the very same kind of pressure can be 
exerted upon the teat and udder. This method also 
rests the hand, when, in milking cows with short teats, 
the wrist becomes wearied. The common method of 
stripping by means of the forefinger and thumb, drawn 
down the teat, is also a rest for the wrist, and may be 
used for milking short teats ; but in this manner of milk- 
ing cows the teat should be strii^ped from the extreme 
top to the bottom, and the part of the udder where the 
largest milk reservoir is situated should be taken in and 
stripped. The milk is then drawn from this part and the 
perfect operation is performed. The condition of the 
cow's nervous system is a large element in the effective 
milking, for the product of milk is greatly dependent 
upon nervous action, and no doubt the abundant nerves 
with which all parts of the udder are furnished must 
have an important effect in controlling the action of the 
glandular tissue. Every dairyman knows how much 



MILKII^a AKD MILKIN'G APPAKATUS. 217 

those disturbing conditions of the cow which result from 
changes in the regular course of management, in any irri- 
tation, act of fear or fright, worry, pain, anger, and un- 
usual exercise, affect the yield of milk and also of cream. 
JThis decrease of yield is unquestionably due to the effect 
of these changes upon the nervous system of the cow, and 
this is very great at times. In the author's dairy the 
cows have been always apportioned regularly to the dif- 
ferent milkers, and the variations in the yield of milk 
have been very slight, except when some changes have 
occurred to disturb the cow. When an unfamiliar at- 
tendant fed and handled the cows, or a stranger did the 
milking, or the feeding was late and the cows — excellent 
timekeepers — were bawling for their morning meal, and 
especially when a fresh hand, unaccustomed to the cows 
and they to him, beat an animal (this should be an 
unpardonable offence in every dairy) to compel it to 
obey unusual orders, then there was always more or less 
falling off in the milk of that day and part of the next. 
Therefore the dairyman must take this fact into account 
and avoid every disturbance of the cow in the manner or 
time of milking as well as in other respects. 

The periods of milking should be at intervals of 
twelve hours as nearly as may be. This is most conven- 
ient, as it gives ample time for all those accessory opera- 
tions which come in between. It has been stated by some 
rather visionary, and certainly impracticable and inexperi- 
enced, writers upon dairy subjects, that a larger quantity 
of milk, and especially of cream, can be procured from 
cows by making more frequent milkings, at eight or six 
hour intervals for instance. As the matter of conven- 
ience is always subject to a question of j)i'ofit, if this 
statement were true it would be important. But it is 
wholly untrue and misleading, being based no doubt, 
theoretically, upon the fact above mentioned, viz., that 
tlie production of milk is excited during the act of milk- 



218 



THE DAIRYMAN S MAKUAL. 



ing. But if tliis excitation of the glands by the act of 
milking could he made continuous, and one should be 
always milking, it might be supposed more milk would 
be procured than by separate milkings. But this would 
be a wholly mistaken calculation, for the too frequent 
milking of a cow will tend to lessen the product of milk 
and a cow may be dried off in this way, the too copious 
secretion tending to exhaust the action of the glands by 
injurious reaction. The glands need a period of rest, as 
all active and nervous tissue does, to recuperate and gain 
resources for renewed action. Some persons think this 
is a new thing altogether ; but there is nothing new 
under the sun, and this is as old as a century at least. 
For in the old magazine entitled '* Annals of Agricul- 
ture," for 1789, the following statement was given of a 
trial of this kind with two, three, and four milkings in 
the day: 

MAT 21, 1789. OCTOBER 22, 1789. 

Pints. Pints. 

First milking. 9i First milking 11 

Second milking. 13 Second milking 6 



Total 22i 

MAT 22. 

First milking- 13 

Second milking 8 

Third milking 5 

Total 26 

MAT 28. 

Mrst milking 12 

Second milking. 7 

Thu-d milking 6 

Foui-th milking 1 



Total 17 

OCTOBER 23. 

First milking 11 

Second milking 3 

Third milking 3 

Total 17 

OCTOBER 24. 

First milking 10 

Second milking. li 

Third milking- 11 

Fourth milking 3 



Total 26 Total .16 

Certainly this proves nothing, or, if anything, that 
there was a loss as well as a gain, and the long night's 
interval is never taken into account. If a little more 
milk was thus gained from the cow, more feed must be 
given, and the labor required would make the practice 
too costly or wholly impossible in a business dairy. 



MILKING AND MILKING APPARATUS. 



219 



True, there are some cows of such phenomenal produc- 
tiveness that more frequent milking than twice a day is 
necessary. But the above remarks apply to such average 
cows as are found in most dairies. 

In regard to another delusion, skimming the cream at 
short intervals, which has been claimed to increase the 
yield, the author has spent six months at one time 
consecutively in his dairy in making all these experi- 
ments, but never got more butter out of the milk by 
many skimmings than was in it, and with the usual 
skimming at the end of thirty-six hours in shallow pans, 
or twenty-four hours in deep pails, the skimmed milk 
never showed a trace of cream which would have repaid 
the labor of collecting it. 

The manner of milking should be systematic. It 
should be cleanly, rapid and complete. A good system 





Fiff. 26.— A DAIRY PAIL. 



Fig, 27.— MILKING PATL. 



of milking is as follows. The cows should be kept in a 
contented and quiet condition during the milking. Pre- 
viously, they should have been thoroughly cleaned by 
carding and brushing, and the stable floor should be made 
clean for the milkers. The milkers should be clean 
and their clothes free from dust. A quick brash with 
a broom-corn Avhisk will quickly remove any adhering 
matter from the clothing. Tlie milking furniture should 
include a hand wash-basin, water, soap and towel, always 



220 THE dairyman's manual. 

to be used by tlie milker before he begins his work. A 
pail of water with a box hooked on to one side for cloths 
and a towel, and a sponge on the other (figure 26), has 
been found very convenient for cleansing and wiping off 
the udders and teats, which is absolutely indispensable 
for getting clean milk. The milker is provided with a 
small low three-legged stool, with a hand hole in the 
seat to lift it by. The best pail is a tin one, made of 
heavy double plate, and having a zinc or galvanized iron 
ring around the bottom. The top of the pail is about 
half covered with a slightly rounded cover, to exclude 
dust, and has a strainer lip on the top. This is covered 
by a hinged lid not shown in the engraving (figure 27), 
but very useful to prevent dust or hairs, at the shedding 
season, from falling upon the strainer. A strainer of 
this kind is easily reached by a sponge or cloth on a stiff 
brush, which is the best thing to clean dairy utensils 
with. Thus provided, the milker begins his work. 

The process is as follows : The milk secreted by the 
glands gradually fills the ducts from the smallest to 
the largest, the latter being situated at the lower part 
of the udder and having for their outlets the teats. The 
duct of the teat, when filled, has considerable cajDacity. 
When the teat is gently squeezed from the top to the 
bottom, the contents are forced out in a stream, and 
when the pressure is relieved the duct is instantly filled 
again, not only by the force of gravity, but also by the 
pressure of the distended membranes of the udder and 
by the atmospheric pressure as well, because when the 
teat is emptied and released from the squeezing of the 
milker's hand, the elastic tube takes its original form, 
and an air vacuum is formed in the passage, or would be, 
if the milk were kept back ; this, however, rushes in and 
fills the space. The pressure should be from top to 
bottom of the teat, and should be made without drag- 
ging on it. To pull down the teat, as in stripping, so- 



MILKIXG AND MILKING APPARATUS. 221 

called, between the fingers, is to be avoided, unless as a 
rest for a short time, or for a good reason. The teat 
should be taken in the hand from the top and squeezed 
with a firm, even motion. One may force the milk in a 
contrary direction, and from the teat to the udder by 
bad milking, and many cows are injured by this faulty 
action in careless or ignorant milkers. When the udder 
is completely filled, the pressure of the distended mem- 
brane is very great. Sometimes this pressure overcomes 
the elasticity of the annular or ring-like membrane which 
closes the opening of the teat, and the cow leaks milk. 

If it were not for this outlet the cow would suffer; 
because when the distension of the udder is at a maxi- 
mum, the pressure then affects the ultimate gland cells, 
which are highly nervous, and causes pain ; it further 
affects the circulatory apparatus, and causes engorge- 
ment ; the blood in these fine vessels cannot then unload 
its burden of milk, and this is returned into the circula- 
tion, with the effect to load the -blood with abnormal 
and therefore diseased matter. From this it will be 
readily seen that some cows should be relieved of their 
milk more than once in twelve hours, and that once 
in eight hours would be better and safer, and would be 
more productive of milk ; and further, it will be seen 
how much mischief may result from leaving in the udder 
a portion of the milk not drawn off, or of drawing it in 
an improper manner. The udder should be comj^letely 
emptied of milk at each milking. The cow should not 
be disturbed during milking, and no person but the 
milkers should be present. 

The best time for milking is either immediately before 
or after feeding. To milk while feeding is troublesome 
and annoying. No singing or droning should be per- 
mitted, but to speak to the cow in a gentle, petting man- 
ner would not be objectionable. Constant watch should 
be kept against any movement of the cow's leg or foot 



222 THE dairyman's manual. 

which might upset the pail, and if such should happen 
accidentally, the cow should not be punished for it. 
Milking should be made a business ; there should be 
no fuss, no noise ; it should be done quietly and quickly. 
If a cow is vicious, she should be punished. A cut with 
a raw-hide, kept purposely, will be the most effective, and 
if but one blow is given the cow will be disciplined and 
not enraged, as by repeated brutal beatings for revenge. 
Punishment for cause only, and that prompt, sharp, 
decisive and summary, is needed at times, especially with 
some young cows, but a cow should never be beaten and 
never kicked, or struck about the head or face. 

Sometimes it is necessary to draw the milk artificially; 
this is done by means of a silver tube (figure 28) inserted 



i^ 



Fig. 38, — MILKING TUBE. 

into the udder. The tub is shown its exact size. It is 
oiled and carefully inserted in the teat, and in case of 
garget or wounded udder or teat, it is left in continuously, 
so that the milk runs off as it is secreted. The slide 
regulates the depth to which the tube is inserted. But 
these tubes should only be used when thus required. 
They cannot safely be used for regular milking as a sub- 
stitute for the hand. Efforts to introduce them for that 
purpose have been costly failures ; but for use under 
special circumstances, as when the teats and udder are 
affected by cow-pox and covered with pustules which 
must not be broken, or in cases of injury to the teat, 
they are indispensable, and a set should always be kept in 
reserve. 

As the milk is drawn from each cow it should be 
weighed, and the weight of the pail being deducted, the 
quantity of milk should be marked on a tablet hung up 
on the wall behind the cow, This is greatly to be 



MILKING AKD MILKIKG APPARATUS. 223 

advised in every business dairy, as it gives an indication 
that everything is going on right, or that something is 
wrong which requires attention. This method sliould 
commend itself to every business dairyman. There are 
sometimes troubles occurring even in the best regulated 
dairy. 

The principal difficulties in milking consist of holding 
up the milk, hard milking, leaking of the milk, and 
spattering of the milk. The first is the most trouble- 
some, because it is a sort of intangible matter, arising 
out of the wilfulness of the cow, which is very difficult 
to deal with. It is usually first noticed at the time when 
the calf has been taken from the cow after having been 
permitted to suck. In the author's dairy not a single 
calf has ever been allowed to suck its dam, and the 
cows that have been thus trained from birth have never 
exhibited any desire to let their calves suck. The cow 
is removed, a few days before her time is expired, to a 
secluded building, where there are all the necessary con- 
veniences provided for her safety and comfort, in a roomy, 
loose stall. Here she is closely watclied, and when the 
calf is soon expected, attention is given so that, as soon 
as the cow has dried it, the calf is picked up and carried 
away to a pen out of sight and hearing of the cow. The 
cow is then fastened up by her neck-strap to a ring in 
the trough, in the usual manner, for reasons that need 
not be particularized. A slop of scalded bran is then 
given warm to the cow and she is left alone for several 
hours. By that time she has become quiet and her ner- 
vousness has gone. The pail is then brought in, and she 
is milked. If she should try to hold up her milk for 
the calf no harm is done at this time, because the flow 
of milk has not come ; but it has never occurred to the 
writer, in many years' experience with cow^s, that a heifer 
with her first calf, and that has not herself sucked her 
dam, has ever refused to let her milk down at the first 



234 THE DAIRYMAX'S MANUAL. 

milking, so that it is pretty certain that a habit of holding 
up the milk, which some cows occasionally have, is due 
at first to want of proper training. But it is easier to 
point out a reason for any thing than to give a remedy; 
and a remedy for this difficulty is not always to be found, 
although many have been suggested by persons who have 
found them effective in their own cases. 

The most popular remedy is to lay a weight across the 
loins, such as a heavy chain or a bag with sand in it. 
There is some rational plausibility in the remedy, for the 
following reasons : — The nerves which control the whole 
muscular system of the hind-quarters, and the digestive, 
urinary, generative and lacteal organs and their func- 
tions, proceed from the spinal marrow near the lumbar 
regions. A pressure, then, upon the loins will neces- 
sarily have some effect upon this portion of the nervous 
system, and may quite possibly interfere with the ability 
of the cow to control the voluntary muscles of the udder. 
If one will carefully note the action of a cow holding up 
her milk, he will be able to observe how she will draw up 
the udder in such a way as to contract the outlets of the 
milk ducts. If, then, by any means the cow can be pre- 
vented from exercising the power to interfere with the 
flow of milk, her attempt can be counteracted. 

Another remedy is to distract the attention of the cow 
from her milking by some enticing food, and it is fre- j 
quently found that to give her a pailful of warm bran or 
meal slop when she is to be milked will induce her to let 
the milk flow. But the most effective method of over- 
coming the cow is to use the milking tubes. These, when 
inserted into the teats, pass into the large milk reservoir 
above the base of the teat and draw off the milk in spite 
of the cow's efforts to retain it. It has also been found 
effective to refrain from milking the cow until the udder 
has become painful from the retention of the milk, when 
she is very willing to be relieved. 



MILKIi^G A2^D MILKIJ^G APPAEATUS. 225 

Patience is also a yirfcue in this respect, and if the 
milker will stay and tire out the cow, waiting and con- 
tinning to rnb the udder and draw upon the teats for a 
considerable time, the milk will come in the end. But 
one should never lose his temper or become impatient 
in such a case as this. To irritate the cow will make 
matters worse. A cow that exhibits affection and regard 
for her owner will rarely give any trouble in this or any 
other way, and it is a case in which it will be found very 
convenient to be on friendly terms with the animal, as, 
indeed, every owner of a cow ought to be. 

A hard milker is usually a good cow, and should be 
treated patiently. This difficulty arises from a stricture 
of the sphincter muscle or a want of capacity of the duct 
of the teat. Either of these can only be remedied by me- 
chanical means. The insertion of a silver milking tube 
into the teat after milking, the tube being closed at the 
bottom by a piece of cork or India rubber, will have the 







Fig. 29. — PLUG FOR CONTRACTED TEAT. 

effect of stretching the membrane and enlarging the ori- 
fice, by giving a new set to the muscles of the teat or to 
the sphincter muscle at the base of the teat ; or a piece 
of whalebone may be filed into a proper shape, as shown 
in the illustration, both to enlarge the duct and to be 
retained in its place, without danger at the same time of 
penetrating too far so that it cannot be withdrawn. The 
form shown in the illustration (figure 29) provides for all 
these. Whalebone is to be preferred because it is hard, 
smooth, elastic and cannot be broken. It should be well 
oiled with sweet oil before it is inserted into the teat. 
Leaking of the milk is caused by the exact reverse 
of that which produces hard milking. It is doubtful if 



226 THE dairyman's manual. 

any permanent remedy can be found for it. A temporary 
preventive, and one not at all difficult of application, is 
to smear the teats of a leaking cow with photographers* 
collodion as soon as she is milked. A bottle of collodion 
may be kept in the barn (always well corked or it will 
evaporate very soon), and a small quantity may be rubbed 
over the teat and on the end of it with the finger. The" 
collodion contracts considerably as the chloroform evapo- 
rates from it and practically forms a tight bandage, 
around the teat, which compresses the duct. When, as 
is sometimes the case, a cow will lose two or three quarts 
of milk a day, it may pay to use this remedy. A rubber 
band around the teat has been suggested, but it is not to 
be recommended, as it would obstruct the circulation and 
cause trouble. 

Spattering of the milk is produced by a ragged edge of 
the skin at the extremity of the duct of the teat. When 
it is permanent it will require for its removal the inser- 
tion of a short plug having the form shown at figure 29, 
by which the extremity of the orifice will be brought into 
more even shape. But generally the use of a piece of 
smooth pumice-stone, rubbed gently uj^on the edge of the 
teat before and after milking, will remove the loose scales 
of the skin which cause the trouble. When the stream 
of milk is diverted from its course and broken in the 
manner referred to, it may often remedy the trouble to 
clear the end of the teat with the finger-nail, by which 
any loose scale of skin will be removed. The skin is 
changed in its natural manner by the flaking oS of 
minute scales or shreds, and as these are worn off or fall 
off new skin appears under them. It is this continual 
reparation of the skin tissue which is the cause of the 
spattering, and when the cause is known the remedy be- 
comes very simple. If the pumice-stone or finger-nail 
does not effect a remed}", the difficulty may be removed 
by applying a little wet carbonate of soda or saleratus to 



MILKIXG AND MILKING APPAEATUS. 227 

the end of the teat and rubbing it a minute ; this will 
dissolve the scale and cause its removal. 

Kicking cows make serious trouble in a dairy, but a good 
cow should never be discarded on this account, for the 
trouble may be cured. Kindness and patience, by which the 
confidence and affection of the cow are secured, often effect 




Fig. 30.— TIE FOB KICKING COW. 

a permanent cure in cases where the fault has been pro- 
duced by cruelty and bad management. Sometimes kind- 
ness is not effective, as where a cow is suffering from sore 
teats, when she cannot be blamed for kicking. Then it 
is necessary to tie the leg in a very simple manner. It is 
done by the use of a fastening common in Irish and 
Scotch dairies, and known as a spancel. It consists of a 
loop of cord about as thick as a common clothes-line, 
and about twenty inches in length, having a cross stick 
fastened at one end. This is shown at figure 30. It is 
used as follows : One end is looped around one of the 




Fig. 31.— TIE FOE KICKING COW, AS USED. 

cow's legs just above the ankle, and the end with the 
cross stick is carried around the other leg and the cross 
stick is passed through the doubled cord, as shown at 
figure 31. The cow cannot lift her leg to kick, and the 
band is very quickly and easily applied and taken off. 
Such a fastening should be kept in every cow stable to 
be ready in case of accident, for the quietest cow may 
kick and upset a. pail of milk Avhen the teats are cracked 
and sore in cold weather, or scratched by briers w^hen 



228 THE dairymaid's manual. 

at pasture, or when they are tender after calving. Under 
such circumstances, and with young heifers having tender 
udders at the first milking, the author has used this fast- 
ening with the most satisfactory effect. 

The principal troubles with milk are, loss of quantity, 
ropiness, mixture with blood, a bitter flavor, foaming in 
the churn, difficulty of churning, and white specks in the 
butter. Most of these come from without the cow and 
are avoidable. One cow may be constitutionally delicate 
and more subject to ailments than another more robust, 
and if she is very defective in this respect, she is poor 
property and should be got rid of as soon as possible. 
There are some cows that are constitutionally scrofulous 
and subject to tuberculosis and other similar diseases, 
such as softening of the bones and suppuration of the 
milk glands. Cows so diseased are easily distinguished 
by their thin, white skin, the bloodless appearance of the 
membranes of the eyes, and the occurrence of nodules 
and swellings about the udder, the joints and the head. 
The milk of such cows is usually thin, bluish in color 
and frequently mixed with strings of ropy or tenacious 
fibrous matter which comes from the teats without any 
other appearance of disorder, and may not be detected in 
the milk until this comes to be strained. But healthy . 
cows need never cause any trouble in regard to the milk 
if they are properly cared for. If anything is wrong, the 
cause may always be found in the manner in which the 
cow is treated — either the food is suddenly changed; or 
it is deficient in quantity or quality; or it is not rightly 
prepared ; or the cow's health is suffering from some 
accidental cause, as exposure to heat or cold, or storms, 
or some sudden change which interferes with the circula- 
tory system ; or she has been chased by dogs, or roughly 
handled by her companions or her keeper. Something 
that might have been avoided has happened to produce 
the trouble. 



MILKIXG AND MILKING APPARATUS. 229 

For instance, when the milk falls off in quantity, the 
first thing to suspect is something in the feeding or 
the watering. A cow will often fall off in milk when 
changed from dry feed in the spring, too suddenly or 
abruptly, to grass. The grass acts upon the bowels as a 
laxative and diuretic, and, in stimulating other organs, 
interferes with the secretion of milk by changing the 
currents of the circulation. It may not follow that a 
change from moderately good to more stimulating food 
will always produce an increase in the milk ; if too sud- 
denly made, the change may easily reduce the flow of 
milk for a time. In the same way the increased feeding 
will often so stimulate the milk organs as to cause them 
to pass blood into the milk ducts unchanged, instead of 
elaborating it into glandular cells which produce the milk, 
and then the milk is mixed with blood. This result may 
also occur from any undue excitement of the circula- 
tion of the udder, such as excessive exercise in running ; 
or from bruising or pressure when a cow lies upon a well- 
filled udder; or from contact of the udder with damp or 
wet ground at any time, or with a cold floor in the 
winter. 

The careful owner of a cow should always consider 
that the udder is a highly nervous 'and vascular organ, 
provided with a very finely diffused circulatory and secre- 
tive apparatus, and that a slight injury may have a very 
serious effect upon it. It has been explained that the 
cell structure of the milk glands is itself the source from 
which the milk is derived, and that these cells are replen- 
ished from the arterial blood conveyed to and distributed 
through the udder. When, therefore, it is considered 
that in a cow giving thirty pounds of milk in twenty- 
four hours all this quantity is actually produced by the 
twofold change of blood into cells and of cells into milk 
and cream, the activity of the organ which performs this 
enormous work must indeed be wonderful ; and it should 



230 THE daikyman's makual. 

not be surprising that an apparently insignificant cir- 
cumstance may produce some unexpected and serious 
results. Bearing this in mind, one who keeps a cow 
should ever be watchful and cautious against the least 
variation of treatment that may so easily affect the con- 
dition of the milk. 

Kopy, bitter, or acid milk, the latter producing specks 
of curd in the butter, may be and usually are caused 
by ill-health in the cow, by which the condition of the 
blood is affected. The milk in its normal, healthful 
condition is slightly alkaline ; but when the blood is out 
of condition its alkalinity may be much increased, or 
the milk may be acid. In one case only, however, have 
I found ropy milk excessively alkaline ; in every other 
case in which I have tested such milk it has been dis- 
tinctly acid, and has sometimes showed, by the test of 
litmus paper, a high degree of acidity and has become 
very soon completely curdled ; the long, fibrous clots, 
placed under the microscope, appear simply as curd 
formed in the ducts and molded by them into the stringy 
pieces which pass through the teat into the milk. This 
ropy or stringy matter is easily dissolved in a solution of 
carbonate of soda or potash, and would therefore seem 
to be caused by acidity. The white specks which often 
appear in the butter are due to a similar cause, and are 
merely particles of curd or cheesy matter which are 
formed in the milk and adhere to the cream, and are car- 
ried up and mingled with it, and so go with it into the 
churn. In this case they are only partially removed by 
the most careful washing, and the butter is unavoidably 
injured by them. 

The best remedy for all these troubles with the milk 
is to administer one pound of sulphate of soda (Glauber 
salts) or of sulphate of magnesia (Epsom salts), dissolved 
in warm water, by means of a common drenching horn ; 
and after this has operated, a daily dose of one ounce of 



THE CAKE OF MILK. 231 

hyposulphite of soda may be given with benefit, for two 
weeks, so as to effectually free the system from all acid- 
ity. This salt is a most valuable medicine in the dairy 
on account of its antiseptic and alterative properties, and 
a pound or two of it may be beneficially kept for use. 
It is readily taken when powdered and sprinkled over a 
mess of scalded bran or some cut feed, and it will be 
found useful in all these cases of trouble with milk. The 
improper behavior of milk in the churn is due altogether 
to the after management of the milk, and requires special 
consideration. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE CARE OF MILK. 

The proper management of milk includes its disposal 
from the time it is drawn from the cow up to the 
time it is skimmed and put to the best practical use 
under the special circumstances of each case. The first 
of these various operations is straining it after it is 
milked. This is done with the greatest care to keep out 
any specks of dust, or accidental hairs that may fall from 
the cow. It should be poured through at least two wire ^ 
gauze strainers, besides that in the milk pail, and through 
a fine muslin cloth doubled as well. This straining will 
certainly stop even a small hair going endwise, which it 
can scarcely do through all these strainers. But while 
the use of the strainers is •imperative, the thorough 
cleansing of them should not be neglected, lest by any 
chance a remnant of milk may stay upon them and be- 
come sour, and act as a pernicious ferment upon other 
milk. The effect of a particle of dried sour milk or 
curd upon any utensil has been carefully explained in 



232 THE BilllYMAK^S MAKUAL. 

Chapter XV. as a constant threatening danger in the 
dairy, and is to be most carefully avoided. 

When the milk has been strained in the stable and be- 
fore it leaves there, it is carried to the milk-house for 
setting for cream. The method of setting varies accord- 
ing to the system practiced. By the use of the centrif- 
ugal cream separator, and the immediate use of the 



Fig. 32. — THE " CENTRIFUGAL CREAMER." 

skimmed milk, nothing more is required than an apart- 
ment for ripening, or really souring, the cream to fit it 
for churning. This invaluable machine for the butter 
dairy deserves a few words of description. It is the 
invention of a Swede. It is known as the " Centrifugal 
Creamer," and is intended to remove the cream by 
mechanical means — centrifugal force, in fact — to take 
the cream from the new milk, and thus avoid the neces- 



THE CARE OF MILK. 233 

sity of setting the milk at all, whether in pans or in 
deep cans, with all the trouble, time and cost incident 
to that so far necessary and risky process. Herewith we 
give engravings of this new dairy machine, which prom- 
ises to make a revolution in our dairy practice (figure 32). 
It was first exhibited at the great English dairy fair, at 
Kilburn, where it obtained a silver medal, and at Haar- 
lem the Agricultural Society awarded it a silver-gilt 
medal. Its inventor claims for it the following advan- 
tages : The cream can be separated from the milk as 
soon as it is drawn from the cow and aired ; the use of 
ice is unnecessary; there is no setting of milk for the 
cream to rise ; all the cream is taken from the milk, and 
the production of butter is consequently increased ; the 
skimmed milk is perfectly fresh, and may be used at 
once for any desired purpose, without loss of sAveet- 
ness ; the quality of the butter is improved, as the 
cream is separated in a perfectly pure condition ; the 
process is easy and simple ; the machine is easily cleaned; 
lastly, the separation of cream may go on continuously 
so long as fresh milk is poured in and the skimmed 
drawn out. The operation depends upon the principle, 
that in a rapidly revolving vessel the heavier contents 
are forced, by the action of their weight, to the outside, 
while the lighter gather in the center. The work is done 
as follows : The receiver, which is made of steel, and is 
supported by a vertical axis turned by a pulley 6,000 in 
a minute, is filled with milk, by means of a funnel, 
which passes into the chamber, through the central col- 
umn (fignre33, a, wliich shows its interior arrrangement). 
The rapid rotary action immediately begins to sepa- 
rate the heavy milk from the light cream, and in a short 
time the outer layers of milk are completely separated. 
As the fresh milk is poured in, this separated milk is 
forced by it into the tube, h, and arrives through it into 
the chamber, B, from which it escapes by a pipe. The 



234 



THE DAIBYMAN^S MANUAL. 



cream in the center being continually augmented by the 
process of separation is raised by the entering milk into 
the tube, c, and passing by the tube, /, into the chamber, 
C, escapes by another pipe into proper receptacles ; thus 
the process continues, so long as any milk is introduced. 
Ifc should follow that as water is heavier than the cream. 




Fig. 33. — "CREAMEK " SEEN IN SECTION. 

if a quantity of it should be introduced when the milk is 
all in, the cream remaining may be separated to the last 
drop, until the milk, too^ is exhausted, when a stream 
of water passed through for a time will cleanse the ma- 
chine perfectly. 

Improved forms of this machine are now made, some 
of them of small size to be operated by hand, instead of 
about two-horse power, which the large machine re- 
quires, and is thus brought into convenient practical use 



THE CARE OF MILK. ^35 

for small dairies where no more than ten or twenty cows 
are kept. Cream is lighter than milk, and according to 
the rules of gravity the former will rise through and 
float npon the latter. But there are some conditions 
which control and regulate this movement. The relative 
densities of the two fluids are charjged by differences of 
temperature. Warm milk is lighter for the same bulk 
than cold, because cold condenses it ; and a cubic foot 
or a measured gallon of milk at forty-five degrees is 
heavier than the same bulk at sixty-five degrees. But 
the gravity of the cream is not changed to so great an 
extent as that of the milk is, and the cream becomes 
relatively lighter under these circumstances^ and conse- 
quently rises to the surface more rapidly. This is the 
principle upon which the Swedish dairymen have prac- 
ticed their deep pail and cold water system of setting 
milk ; and this system has been adopted by American 
dairymen with much success. It may be applied to 
either deep or shallow pans, or to the earthen pans, a 
sort of intermediate compromise between the two, in com- 
mon use in the Eastern Pennsylvania dairies, and also in 
Holland. In these dairies running spring water is used 
for cooling the milk, but the temperature is not below 
fifty-five or sixty degrees in summer, and the earthen 
pans are not over eight inches deep. It is necessary to 
use pans of this or even less depths when the tempera- 
ture is not less than sixty degrees, because otherwise the 
cream would not have time to rise before the milk be- 
came sour and thick. But in the twenty-inch deep 
pails set in ice- water at a temperature of forty-five 
degrees the milk will remain sweet for seventy-two 
hours, and all the cream will rise in twelve hours. But 
this rapid separation of the cream has another effect 
which should be mentioned, and this is that as the 
cream rises it carries with it by attraction and between 
the globular particles a considerable quantity of the 



236 THE DAIRTMAK S MAKUAL. 

milk, so tliat in a deep pail, containing twenty inches 
of milk, and having five inches of cream, so-called, npon 
the upper part of it, at least one-half of this cream is 
milk ; while in a shallow pan containing four inches of 
milk, upon which only half an inch of cream has risen, 
tills cream is pure and contains no milk. But this solid 
cream has been slowly rising through four inches of 
milk during thirty-six hours, while the five inches have 
risen in twelve hours through twenty inches of milk, 
and this rapid motion is the cause of the large admix- 
ture of milk with the cream. 

There is a common opinion among dairymen that con- 
tact with air is necessary during the rising of the cream. 
This is a mistake. It is true that new milk from some 
cows contains a highly volatile odor, to which the name 
"animal odor" has been given. It is a gratuitous as- 
sumption, in our opinion, that this is a true animal 
odor ; on the contrary, it is an odor of uncleanness, either 
in the cow, the food, or water, or in the manner of milk- 
ing. There are cows from whose milk no odor of the 
kind is to be perceived, and none but the sweetest, and 
there are other cows whose odor is so powerful and per- 
sistent that it remains in the butter and cannot be got 
rid of. Truly, the cow may bear the blame in this that 
belongs of right to her keeper, and doubtless the cow 
does so to a great extent. But as this odor may in 
some cases pass off rapidly, it is well that the milk 
should be exposed superficially to a current of pure air, 
and the more moist this is the better, for moisture dis- 
solves this odorous gas. In the method known as the 
" Oooley" system the milk is set in deep pails, which are 
covered with "inverted flaring-edged pans, held down by 
cross-bars of wood, and submerged in ice-cold water. It 
may, and does to many, seem at first sight that this is 
equivalent to using closely covered pans or pails for set- 
ting milk ; and it would be so, were it not that water 



THE CARE OF MILK. 237 

has more affinity for odors, and absorbs them more rap- 
idly, than any other liquid, and this peculiarity of water 
is turned to account in this method. For the covers of 
the pails are so made and fitted that the vapors which 
rise from the warm milk are condensed upon the inner 
surface of the pan, which is purposely made slightly 
^^onical, and the condensed liquid flows down to the edge 
of the pan and mixes with the water, and is absorbed. 
The cold water, therefore, becomes a purifying as well 
as a cooling agent, and on this account this system has 
been so successfully used in dairies that many winners 
of dairy i)rizes have gained them through the use of 
Cooley creameries. This is the only system in use which 
practices total submersion of the milk, and this chief 
principle of it is a special claim to superiority, and the 
patent is based upon it as one of its fundamental princi- 
ples. This close covering of the milk, therefore, should 
not be considered as a proof that airing is unnecessary, 
because a very perfect substitute for this is provided, 
combined with many other ^ important conveniences and 
advantages. 

There are other methods of setting milk in cold 
closets, but they are all based on the fact that the low 
temperature causes a rapid separation of the cream. It 
is also a necessary consequence that the cream is consid- 
erably mixed with milk and quite fluid. This, however, 
is an advantage of this system, for the cream is taken off 
in precisely the best condition for churning, and no 
milk need be added to it before it goes into the churn. 
This secures constant regularity in the churning and 
evenness in the quality, and is an example of the great 
advance in the practice of dairying that has been se- 
cured by the use of ice, which makes perfect uniformity 
possible. 

The practice which is common in many creameries 
and dairies of setting the milk in deep pails in pools 



238 THE DAIRTMA-N"'S MANUAL. 

of ice-water, where they float with the tops of the pails 
exposed to the air, differs somewhat from the covered 
pail system. The difference consists in tliis, that the 
cream is exposed to air which is warmer than the milk. 
» Now warmth moves upward and cold downward, and 
every one knows that hot water may remain upon ice 
without melting any more than a very small depth of it 
downward. Further, cream needs to undergo a process 
of ripening before it is fit for churning, and this ripen- 
ing is merely the oxidation of the cream by its exposure 
to air. This change occurs with greater rapidity in 
warm air than in cold, and most so with the shallow pan 
setting. In the case above noted, the warm air of the 
room in contact with the cream hastens this ripening 
process, at the same time that the cold water hastens the 
rising of the cream. But, after practicing both these 
methods with the utmost care and constant observation 
of results for some years, the author has not been able 
to distinguish any difference in the product of the butter 
either in quantity or in quality. The only difference is 
that cream raised in shallow pans is pure and too thick 
to be churned without adding an equal bulk of milk or 
water, and that one quart of it will produce a pound of 
butter, while that raised in deep pans is half milk, and 
two quarts produce one pound of butter; yet the same 
quantity of milk in the dairy week after week yields pre- 
cisely the same amount of butter from either system of 
setting, in the same time of churning. So that after all, 
if the same care is used and the principles upon which 
butter-making is based are skillfully followed from first 
to last, it matters little which system is practiced, ex- 
cepting so far as one may be more convenient than 
another, under varying circumstances. 

The shallow pan system of setting is the most com- 
mon, and will be first commented upon. The con- 
struction of the dairy used for this method differs some- 



THE CARE OF MILK. 239 

what from those used for deep setting, as the furnish- 
ing necessarily varies considerably. Cellars are mostly 
used for shallow setting, and as many of these are 
offensive and injurious to the milk, the proper arrange- 
ment of a desirable milk-cellar will be described. 

In a building that is not cooled by ice or warmed by 
a stove, the most regular temperature is secured in a 
cellar. The common receptacle for milk is a cellar, be- 
cause every house is supplied with one, or should be, 
and it is the most convenient place for it. For a fam- 
ily dairy the cellar will be the appropriate place for 
keeping milk ; and if it is not fit for this particular pur- 
pose, which requires absolute cleanliness and purity, it 
is not fit for human beings to live over. In every such 
case the cellar should be made fit by thorough cleans- 
ing, and draining, if necessary; laying a floor of cement, 
moderate lighting and ventilation, and the protection of 
the windows by wire gauze. A slatted outside door is 
very suitable for a milk-cellar, and this should be on the 
north side and opened at night. The walls should be 
closely pointed and whitewashed inside. The common 
practice of protecting a cellar from frost by heaping lit- 
ter from the stable around it, is very objectionable. Nor 
should turnips or potatoes be stored in a cellar where 
milk is kept, unless it is divided by a tight partition and 
the root cellar abundantly ventilated. 

Ventilation for a cellar may be provided by carrying a 
tube or spout from the floor to the ceiling, and through 
the wall out of doors, where it should be protected by iine 
wire gauze. The arrangement is explained in figure 34, 
in which the cellar wall is shown with the spout fixed 
against it. The outlet is divided in the center, and one 
half communicates with the spout which reaches to the 
bottom of the cellar, and this furnishes an inlet to fresh, 
cold air. The other is connected with the short upright 
spout outside, through which the warm, fouled air 



240 



THE dairyman's MANUAL. 



escapes, as shown by the arrows. This arrangement 
has been found very useful both for purifying and dry- 
ing the air of a cellar ; for the cold air coming in at the 
bottom is drier than the warm air passing out, and the 
moisture of the cellar is continually absorbed and carried 
off so long as any warm air flows out of the upper spout. 
The spouts are provided with slides by which they may 
be closed when necessary. The cellar should be well 







Fig. 34.— MILK-CELLAK UNDER A HOUSE. 

ceiled with lath and plaster, otherwise dust will be drop- 
ping from the rooms above ; und in any case this is ad- 
visable, for if no other means of ventilation are provided, 
air will pass up and down through the floor over the 
cellar, and it may be bad for the milk, as well as for the 
occupants of the rooms above. The ceiling not only 
preserves cleanliness, but regularity of temperature. 

AVhere an outside cellar is desirable, an excellent ar- 
rangement is like that shown in figure 35. A cellar is 
dug twelve feet deep ; the walls are built <?f stone, con- 



THE CARE OF MILK. 



Ml 



Crete or brick. A snb-cellar at least eight feet deep is 
made by throwing a floor over the cellar four feet below 
the surface. An out-house or shed is built over this as 
a protection and is lighted by a sash in the roof. A sash 
is placed over a raised frame in the floor, as shoAvn, which 
lights the sub-cellar. Steps are provided for access to 
each cellar. The sub-cellar is furnished with shelves 
and a bench. In such dry soils as will admit of it a 
cellar of this kind is one of the best possible for a small 
dairy, or, indeed, for household purposes. It is light and 
cool, and the temperature will not vary from about sixty 




Fig. 35.— OUTSIDE MILK-CELLAR. 

degrees, or somewhat less, the whole year. It should be 
kept whitewashed, by which the light is well diffused 
about it. It may be found convenient to use the upper 
portion asachurning-room and for storing milk utensils. 
Cellars are apt to be damp. In this case the air may 
be dried by means of a peck of fresh lime placed in a 
box or tub in the cellar. Twenty pounds of lime (one 
peck) will absorb about seven pounds of water, and to 
take seven pints of water from the air of a cellar will 
make it yery dry. The lime will simply fall to a pow- 



242 



THE DAIRYMAID'S MANUAL. 



der and may then be used for many useful purposes, or 
be added to the garden compost heap. 

Where the cellar cannot be used on account of the 
wetness of the soil, an above-ground cellar must be pro- 
vided. This may be partly sunk in the ground, but if 
there is any danger of water soaking into it, it should be 
wholly above the ground. It becomes then, properly, a 
milk-house, and the description of such a house will be 
as follows: 

Milk-houses may be constructed of wood, of stone, 
or of brick. If well constructed, one kind may be 
made as useful as another. For some purposes a frame 
house is the best, retaining an even temperature better 




Fig. 36. — FRAME MILK-HOUSE. 

than any other. Air passes through brick and plaster 
with much greater facility than is generally supposed. 
In a test once made the air, forced by a wind pressure of 
only three pounds on a square foot, passed through a 
brick wall plastered inside with such ease that, when 
collected by a funnel one foot square and discharged 
through a Brnall orifice, it was sufficient to extinguish 



THE CARE OF MILK. 243 

the flame of a common candle. It is this passage of air 
through brick which causes a deposit of ice on the inner 
surface of the wall of a warmed house when a cold wind 
is blowing outside, or a deposit of dew on the inner wall 
of a cold house when a warm wind is blowing in the 
summer. But a frame house must be well constructed, 
otherwise it will soon begin to decay at the foundation 
and this w^ill at once destroy its usefulness. The frame 
house should be supported upon brick or stone founda- 
tions, and if the soil is suitable, the foundation should 
be sunk at least four feet below the surface. A section 
through the center of a convenient milk-house is shown 
in the illustration (figure 36). 

The foundation is of brick or stone, and is carried up 
sufficiently to preserve the timber from decay. The floor 
is covered with hydraulic cement concrete three inches 
thick, and is finished with a light coat of clear cement 
and sand in equal parts. One window is on the north 
side, and is protected against flies by a wire gauze screen. 
A space of two feet is left above the ceiling, and through 
this a ventilator is passed, which is closed by a trap-door 
that can be raised by means of a cord reaching below. 
The walls and ceilings should be plastered and a hard- 
finishing coat of plaster-of-Paris, costing only a few 
dollars extra, will add much to the cleanliness. Lime 
wash will be always peeling off, and the scales will fall 
dow^n upon the milk. The hard-finish is less porous 
than the lime, which is an advantage. 

A brick, stone, or concrete milk-house will be prefer- 
able where the material can be procured easily; stone 
or concrete will be the cheapest where the stone or 
gravel is abundant, and either is better than brick both 
for winter- or summer use. If the walls are lined in- 
side by means of furring strips four inches thick, upon 
which the laths are nailed, a considerable air space will 
be secured and this w^ill help greatly to preserve an even 



244 



THE DAIRTMAIs's MANTAL. 



temperature in the house. A section of a house con- 
structed in this manner is shown at figure 37. The out- 
side of the milk-house should be painted or washed white, 




Fig. 37,— BRICK OR STONE MILK-HOUSE, 

as this reflects the heat and keeps the inside much cooler 
than would bare bricks, stone or boards. 

For a butter dairy an adjoining room for churning 
should be provided (figure 38), furnished with water for 
washing pans and utensils, a stove for maintaining sufii- 
cient warmth in the winter, and a sink and drain for 
carrying off the slops, which are shown at (a). In such 
a dairyiouse the furniture should consist of a proper 
arrangement of shelves (hi), a table {c) for keeping but- 
ter on, and a low bench (d) for the cream jars in one 
corner, out of the way of passing to and fro. In the au- 
thor's shallow-pan dairj^-room the shelves are made in 
three tiers, the lowest one twenty-four inches above the 
floor, the others thirty-six and forty-eight inches high 
respectively. They are made of four pieces of one and 
one-quarter by three inch slats set on edge three inches 
apart, and the upper edge is beveled sharp, for the pans 



fHE CARE OF MILK. 



245 



to rest lipon, and thus to secure a thorongh circulation 
of air around and under the pans. This dairy is a cellar 
in the rear of a basement, -which is used for a churning 
and wash room. It is entirely below the surface at the 
rear, the ground sloping downward to the front of the 
basement. A window protected by wire gauze and on 
the north side gives ample ventilation. The floor is 
cemented, the walls are of stone, lathed and plastered, 
and the ceiling is also lathed and plastered. There is 
no difficulty in keeping this dairy at a temperature of 
sixty-two degrees or lower, by having the door and win- 



A 

CHUAKSWASH 
BOOM, 




Fig. 38. — GBOirsD plam of milk-houses (Figs. 36 and 37). 

dow closed through the day, and opening the window 
at night. Lime is used to keep the air dry and pure. 
Nothing else is kept in this dairy but milk and butter. 
The construction of a deep-pail dairy is somewhat differ- 
ent. It requires a supply of cold spring water or of cool 
well water and ice. 

A most desirable milk-house of this kind is one that 
is supplied with a flowing stream of cold spring water. 
This secures the requisite evenness and lowness of tem- 
perature and an advantageous moisture and purity of 
atmosphere. The best materials for spring-houses are, 
first, stone ; then, concrete ; and lastly, brick. Wooden 
spring- houses may be acceptable under such circum- 
stances as will avoid dampness ; for instance, when water 
is brought from a distant spring in a pipe laid under- 
ground, and made to discharge in a tank excavated or 



U6 



THE dairyman's MAKUAL. 



bnilt in the center ; or a tank or pool may be constructed 
upon a spring which fills the reservoir and flows off with- 
out wetting the ground. But as one of the important 
points about a spring-house is evenness of temperature, 
a solid heat and cold proof wall is desirable. 

Spring-houses may be used for either shallow or deep 
setting, but the economy of the latter is too obvious to 
be disregarded. For instance, to set 400 quarts of milk 
in shallow pans holding eight quarts each, a trough of 
more than ninety-six square feet of surface would be re- 



B 



y Y^7yW //y/^^^^y>J^^^A^^^^^/^^^y^y/J^^^//7777l 



k 




PQOL.fOR 20 
Q inCH PAILS. 



,t= J 



^ 



^C4l^, 3 rr. TO AfJ JNCH., 



\^^2Z2ZZ^22^22i: 



•:SZZZZZ2Z2ZZ^ 



Fig. 89.— PLAN OP MILK-HOUSE. 

quired. A useful plan for a deep-tank milk-house is 
shown at figure 39; (a) is the inlet pipe, {b) the outlet, 
and in the center is the pool. 

The house should be roomy. A brick or concrete 
floor is preferable to any other. The concrete is made 
of gravel or coal ashes, and mixed with a thin mortar 
of water lime and sand, in the proportion of one of 
lime to three of sand. The concrete is laid three inches 
thick and well rammed down. The pool should be lined 
with brick laid in cement, if it is below the surface ; if 
it is raised above the surface, it may be built of brick laid 
in cement and painted inside. For a handsome pool the 



THE CARE OF MILK. 



247 



inside may be lined with porcelain tiles and the top of 
the wall covered with a marble coping. A section of a 
house provided with such a pool is shown at figure 40. 
The house may be sunk two feet below the surface, or 
built on the level of the ground, as may be convenient. 
The water is brought into the tank by a lead pipe, a, 
at the bottom, and escapes at the water level of the tank, 
as shown at h. The passage around the tank is in- 
tended to be three feet wide, which gives ample room 
for brick benches here and there, upon which cream jars, 
pails or dishes of butter or spare utensils may be placed. 




= WATER. 



|jt= 



V//AV/<'/////M 



Fig. 40. — MILK-HOUSE WITH RAISED TANK. 

The drainage of such a house should be perfect, and good 
ventilation should be secured by such methods as have 
been described in previous chapters. The roof should be 
divided from the lower apartment by a ceiling having 
two or three feet of space above, by which the heat of 
the sun beating on the roof is shut off. The cooler the 
house is kept, the drier it will be ; for the evaporation of 
the water will be less, and the less the evaporation, the 
less condensation there will be upon the floor, the walls, 
and the sides of the tank. 

A small frame spring-house built, as a preliminary 
test, by the author, and which had the pool sunk in the 
ground so as to utilize a spring which existed on the 
spot, has been found very useful. It cost less than forty 



248 



THE DAIEYMAN^S MANUAt. 



dollars and the pool was large enough to hold 200 quarts 
of milk. The plan is shown by the diagram (figure 41), 
in which a section across the house and pool is shown. 
This house is twelve feet square. The pool was sunk 
until a bubbling spring was reached, and the bottom was 
paved with flat stones loosely placed, the water rising 
through the spaces between the stones until it flowed out 
of a pipe at the top, shown at h, leaving a depth of 
eighteen inches of water in the pool. As the water rises 




Fig. 41.— SPRING-HOUSE FOR MILK. 

suddenly when several twenty-quart pails of milk are 
put into the pool, the outlet is made of three-inch glazed 
drain tile, covered with wire gauze as a protection. The 
drain discharges into a stream close behind the spring- 
house. 

To cool 200 quarts of milk from seventy-five or eighty 
degrees down to fifty-five, requires either consider- 
able time or a good flow of cold water. With a flow 
of two quarts per minute of water at a temperature of 
fifty-five degrees, and an air temperature of eighty de- 
grees, four hours are required to reduce the milk to the 
temperature of sixty degrees, and the temperature of 
the milk cannot be reduced as low as that of the water 
unless the pool is protected by a covering from the air. 
It may thus be found advisable to provide falling doors 
io cover the tank when the water supply is not more 



THE CARE OF MILK. 



240 



than two quarts in a minute, which is equal to a flow, 
without pressure, of a quarter-inch stream of water. 

The author has built several dairy-houses for himself 
rand other dairymen; the latest and most improved, how- 
ever, is the last one made for his own use, and described 
as follows. The ground plan is shown at figure 42. It 
consists of a tank-room and a churning-room, with an 
attic overhead. The tank-room is three feet below the 
ground level, for the sake of coolness ; the churning- 
room is a foot above the ground. The whole house is ten 
by twenty feet, inside measurement ; the tank-room is 
ten by eight, and the churning-room ten by twelve. The 
tank-room is the most important part, and this has a 



!^^U^<»^xN't:^Ns^-s-?s-^i».xX'SS>t^v^s^>^^ 



tK!^^tiMK^v-xs?.-^>^;^^ l 



D 






Fl 



^^t^y.<ty^^ot^^>c:^^jisli^^t!ii!^jit^^s8ii^t{4!j3li>l 



.^^ 






Fig. 43.— PLAN or milk -house. 

A, Milk Tank, 414 feet by T; B. ChuniingKoom. with Pump, Bench and Sink; 
C, Low Sink and Drain; D^ Table. 

stone basement wall laid in cement and a cemented floor. 
The tank is twenty-two inches deep, made of brick laid 
in cement, and with a loose brick floor. It has a perma- 
nent cool spring running through it, and an overflow 
pipe eighteen inches above the bottom, to keep this depth 
of water always in it. The cans used are the deep cans, 
twenty by eight and a half inches, each holding four- 
teen quarts, or thirty pounds of milk. The tank has a 
passageway around it, and has a falling door over it to 
exclude dust and preserve the desired temperature, when 
there is need for it, as m extremely hot or cold weather. 



250 THE DAtRYMAlJ^^^S MANUAL. 

To preserve the equilibrium of the j^ails, racks made 
of galvanized iron bars, as shown (figure 43), are used; 
the spaces are nine inches square, and a pail fits in each 

one. This rests on a shoulder 
"^ made in the wall of the tank 
=> by setting out a row of bricks 

on each side one inch, so that 
RACK FOR THE PAILS. ^^^^ ^'^ck is thrcc iuchcs below 

the water level. There is a 
window at the north end over the tank. A tank of this 
size will hold thirty-five pails of fourteen quarts each, 
or the milk of fifteen to twenty cows. 

Light has the effect of deepening the color of the cream 
a little, but I never found any difference in the butter 
from cream kept in closed cans in this tank, or in the 
submerged cans of the Cooley system, which of course 
exclude light, as compared with that from cream kept in 
my shallow-pan dairy used at the same time as this deep- 
settiuoj milk-house. 

The churning-room is reached by steps from the tank- 
room, and a glazed door separates the two. Both apart- 
ments are plastered and hard-finished over lath. The 
walls are made of two-by-eight studs, covered with build- 
ing paper on both sides, and outside with tight-fitting 
"^novelty" siding. This secures a very good non-con- 
ducting wall, and helps very much to preserve an even 
temperature. A bench or table (d) is fixed on the east 
side the whole length of the room. This is made low 
enough to work at easily, and is for packing butter and 
other similar work. There is a small table in the corner 
of the tank-room for the butter to remain on until it is 
finally worked for packing during either hot or cokl wea- 
ther. At the right hand of the table (d) is a sink with 
a pump and pipe leading to a drain ; this is as high as 
the table. Another on the level of the floor (c), for 
washing the churn, is at the right hand of this sink. 



T-BLE CARE OF MILK. ^51 

The butter- worker can be placed in the front of tliis sink 
when in use, so that the drainage from it is caught and 
does not mess up the floor. The floor is of matched 
boards laid over common hemlock boards, and is oiled 
so that it will not absorb any spilled cream, which can 
be wiped off without trouble. An open stairway leads 
up to the attic, where butter pails, etc., can be stored. 




Fig. 44. — EOTATING SHELVES FOR DAIRY. 

A large drawer on rollers, under the table, holds the 
sr t and other drawers are for paraffine paper and small 
things. After several years' use of this house the author 
does not know that he could add anything to this milk- 
house to make it more useful, convenient, or agreeable. 



25S 



-THE dairyman's MAKtT AL. 



The Frencli dairies, both for butter and cheese, are 
invariably built solidly and compactly of stone, with 
stone-flagged floors for cleanliness and coolness, and are 
exceedingly roomy and airy. The benches are made of 
stone, and stone benches also serve as tables. Nothing 
is placed on the floor, or less than eighteen inches above 
it, as the French daii-ymen have a dread of *' ground 
air," which they believe confers a bad odor upon milk 
and butter. These dairies are frequently washed with a 
copious flood of water, which passes off by a drain. 




■ ' - 1 ^ J-->-:-.ri r-r-n-^^i-^^ 



lHulMulitoiiiuiuiiii'Ji!ti«iJ 




Fig. 45.— MILK CLOSET. 



Fig. 46. — INTERIOR OF MILK CLOSET, 



A most convenient arrangement of shelves for a shal- 
low-pan dairy, which was used in the Beacon farm dairy 
at Northport, Long Island, when it was under the charge 
of Mr. Wm. Crozier, is shown at figure 44. It is made 
to revolve upon pivots fitted in the floor and ceiling, and 
saves many steps in the work of skimming and replacing 
the filled pans. 

For a family dairy where one cow is kept it is seldom 
possible to have a separate milk-house, and a cupboard or 
refrigerator must be used as the rccejitacle. An excel- 



THE CARE OF MILK. 



253 



lent closet, devised by the author and found very useful, 
is shown at figure 45. It is enclosed by wire gauze to 
exclude flies and admit air, and is provided inside with 
revolving shelves (figure 46) by which the milk may be 
put in and. taken out most conveniently. The cream jar 
is kept under the shelves. A closet of this kind will 
hold five tiers of two, three, or four pans each, the 
shelves being six or eight inches apart. The wire gauze 
covering permits perfect ventilation. 

A closet or refrigerator for the use of ice, and prac- 
tically deep setting on a small scale, is shown at figure 




Fig. 47.— REFEIGEEATOR CLOSET. 

47, and needs no further description than to note that 
the water from the melting ice is either carried off from 
the ice tray by a pipe, or drips upon the pails and runs 
off through a pipe in the bottom. This closet is lined 
with sheet tin or zinc. 

\ The tin pan^ in common use for setting milk have one 
objectionable feature; this is, the seam around the bot- 
tom in which sour milk will be concealed, un"'.ess great 
circumspection is used. The pressed pan, of which fig- 
ure 48 gives a section, has no such hiding place for the 



254 THE DAIRYMA^Js S MANUAL. 

sour milk, which acts upon the fresh milk in the same 
manner as rennet, and will often curdle it in a tew hours 
and before the cream has been able to rise to the surface. 
The pressed pans are therefore much easier to clean and 
much safer in use. It is also an improvement on the 
pans to have supports on the bottom at least half an inch 
thick, to raise the bottom of the pans from the shelf. 
This permits the air to circulate under the pan and cools 
the milk more quickly than if it rested closely upon a 
solid shelf. The slatted shelves are intended to assist in 
this more rapid cooling. The deep pails which are pre- 
ferred by so many dairymen are about twenty inches 
deep and from eight to nine inches in diameter. A rim 
encircles the bottom which raises it about an inch, and 

Fig. 48. — SECTION OF PRESSED TIN MILK PAN. 

which is perforated with several holes to admit air to 
circulate under the bottom. The shape of these pails is 
shown in figure 47, with the Hardin refrigerating closet, 
in which they are used. These pails may be used either 
in dry ice or cold water setting, but cannot be used ex- 
cept with ice or cold water, the effect of which secures 
the low temperature by which only the cream can be 
raised rapidly enough through so great a depth of milk 
to prevent loss by premature souring. 

The furniture of a dairy is not complete without ar- 
rangements for washing, drying and airing the pans. A 
sink in the dairy-room or the kitchen, with a small pump 
attached to it and connected with a well or cistern, will 
be necessary to save trouble and secure effectiveness. In 
family dairies every housekeeper will as easily recognize 
the utility of the best method of cleansing the apparatus 
and arranging the furniture in a systematic way, as a bus- 




THE CARE OF MILK. 255 

iness dairyman whose Hying depends upon his success. 
Nevertheless, there are dairies and creameries where the 
system in operation is totally devoid of the commonest 
means of insuring the necessary cleanliness; and in see- 
ing this the natural consequence — a poor 
quality of product which unfortunately is 
the rule rather than the exception — is by 
no means surprising. Above the sink 
there may be a rack in which shallow pans 
may be kept upon their sides ; or lath 
shelves upon which deep pails may be 
placed bottom upwards. An outdoor rack 
placed in a sunny exposure wdll be found 
very convenient. For shallow pans this 
may be provided on the porch of the milk- 
house, or of the kitchen ; for deep pans ^io-, 49 
a post set in the ground near the dairy, DEYraa rack for 
and furnished with a number of pins, as *"^^ pails. 
shown at figure 49, will serve as a rack for airing them. 
The greatest mistakes in the dairy are made in setting 
the milk for cream. In the family dairy, w^here one 
cow supplies milk and butter, the arrangements are 
usually better than in some farm dairies. Here the ar- 
rangements are often surprisingly bad. At times one 
may have seen the milk of four cows set in a sleeping- 
room, and under the bed. The young woman who man- 
aged that dairy prided herself on her good butter. What 
she knew of bad butter must have been fearful to con- 
template. In some farm-houses the milk is set in the 
living-room where the cooking and eating are done, and 
where, in the evening, the farmer and the hired man 
smoke their pipes and dry their wet boots and socks 
under the stove. No wonder some persons prefer oleo- 
margarine to butter made in that fashion. If these lines 
come under the notice of any one, man or woman, who 
keeps milk under such circumstances as these, or in any 



256 THE dairyman's manual. 

way approaching to them, it may be said to him or her, 
that good butter cannot be made in that way, and the 
labor spent over it is only half or quarter paid for. 

The first necessity in setting the milk is perfect purity 
of place and surroundings. Then there should be the 
following adjuncts : 

A moderate circulation of fresh and moist air. 

Shelves raised at least three feet from the ground. 

A temperature not over sixty degrees in summer, and 
not below forty-five degrees in winter. 

Perfectly clean utensils, and very little light. 

It matters little how or where these conditions are se- 
cured ; that they are secured is sufficient. The follow- 
ing reasons maybe given; viz., milk readily absorbs 
odors and the odors are concentrated in the cream; with 
stagnant air the natural odor of the fresh milk, which is 
disagreeable to some persons, cannot be removed ; in the 
dry air the cream becomes of a leathery toughness and 
often produces specks in the butter, and always makes 
an inferior quality. When milk is kept on the ground 
in a cellar or milk-house, it is brought into contact with 
the coldest air, in which all the bad odors of the place are 
condensed. At a higher temperature than sixty degrees 
the milk will sour and often thicken before the cream 
has risen, and to have the best butter, the cream should 
be taken from sweet milk. At a lower temperature than 
forty-five degrees the color of the cream is much light- 
ened, and the butter will be too light in color; besides, 
there is danger of freezing, and frozen cream will not 
make good butter. If the milk pans are nofc quite sweet 
and clean, the milk will sour too soon. With too much 
light the butter will not have the rich, deep color that is 
desired. 

When the milk is brought in from the cow stable or 
the shed it is strained at once into the jDans or pails, and 
these are put away in the place provided for them. If it 



THE CARE OF MILK. 257 

is not strained at once, some cream will rise, if the milk 
is rich, and this cream will be caught in the meshes of 
the strainer and be lost. Before the milk is poured out 
of the pail it is safe to first pour out a quart or so and re- 
turn this into the pail ; this will remove an^ stray hairs 
or dust that may have fallen on to the outside of the 
strainer spout or lip of the pail. This is more especially 
advisable with those pails the strainer of which cannot 
be wiped with a clean cloth. The improved strainer 
pail, shown in figure 27 — which, by the way, is not pat- 
ented — may be easily cleaned or wiped to remove any 
hair, dust or other impurity which may have fallen 
on it, and it is also protected by the hinged cover (not 
shown in the engraving) which excludes dust during the 
milking. In placing the milk pans on the shelves, or the 
pails in the pool, it will be found convenient to have 
them arranged in regular order and to retain this order 
always, so that there is never any doubt about the right 
pans to be skimmed. The shelves may be arranged so as 
to make this very easy and >not to move any pans, but 
to put the freshly filled pans always in the place of 
those last skimmed. If one shelf only is used, the pans 
must be moved along to fill the place of those skimmed 
at one end and make room at the other end for the fresh 
milk. The pans should never be covered. If it is nec- 
essary to cover anything to exclude flies, mice or other 
vermin, the windows should be covered with fine wire 
gauze, and to guard against mice the shelves should be 
purposely arranged. 

When the milk has stood thirty-six hours the cream 
will have risen, and should be skimmed off. At this 
time the cream will be thick and adherent, and on good 
milk that has been set two inches deep in shallow pans 
should be at least a quarter of an inch thick. This will 
give twelve per cent of pure cream, which is as much as 
the author has ever known any cow to give, although it has 



258 THE dairyman's manual. 

often been said that such a cow gives twenty-five or thirty 
per cent of cream. Some cows will show twenty-eight 
per cent of cream in a five-inch-deep test-glass ; but this 
is not pure cream. This same milk set in a twenty-inch- 
deep pail wiM show about six inches of cream, or thirty]^ 
per cent ; but when cream rises in a deep vessel a largeJ ' 
quantity of milk is brought up with it and stays with ^ 
it, and the thirty per cent which is shown in a deep 
Cooley pail, shrinks in a Ferguson Bureau pan to 
twelve per cent. There is an advantage, however, in 
this diluted cream, which is, that it is in precisely 
the best condition for good churning ; while in skim- 
ming the pure cream at least an equal quantity of milk 
should be poured off with it into the cream jar, and both 
be stirred up together. To remove the cream from 
shallow pans, a small, flat cream knife should be passed 
around the edge of the pan to loosen it, and the film of 
cream is then floated and pushed with the cream knife 
over the edge of the pan into the cream jar. This will 
remove enough milk with the cream to dilute it suffi- 
ciently. Every time cream is poured into the jar it 
should be stirred, otherwise there will be danger of hav- 
ing white specks in the butter, from some particles of dry 
cream or from over-sour curd at the bottom. 

There are a great many patented methods and appar- 
atus for setting milk for cream. Descriptions of these, 
however, scarcely fall under the scope of this work, as 
all of them have good points which secure favor from 
those who choose and use them. The young or inex- 
perienced dairyman should be cautious about deciding 
upon any permanent fixtures in his dairy until he has 
had some opportunity of seeing and examining them. 
As every dairyman of good sense and judgment should 
become a member of his State Dairymen's Association, 
which privilege is most cheaply secured for the small 
sum of one dollar yearly, and should faithfully attend 



CREAM AND ITS PECULIARITIES. 259 

the meetings of it, he will have ample facilities for ac- 
quiring valuable information in regard to these systems 
of setting milk referred to. And understanding the 
principles involved in the successfal pursuit of his 
business, which are explained in tliis work, he will be 
well able to exercise his judgment in regard to a choice 
of what apparatus he may desire to use. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CREAM AND ITS PECULIARITIES. 

• We have seen that cream consists of the fatty globules 
mixed with certain proportions of other parts of the milk. 
These proportions vary from about seventy-five to fifty 
per cent of the whole quantity of cream. But there is 
another constituent of cream which is most important to 
take cognizance of. It is a most serious disturbing ele- 
ment, producing changes in cream which interfere very 
much with the process of churning and affecting consid- 
erably the quality of the butter. This is an albuminous 
viscid matter, which appears on examination under the 
microscope to contain a considerable quantity of mem- 
branous or cellular animal tissue, very well described by 
one observer as a ''smeary mass " which is thrown out of 
the milk, and adheres to the sides of the centrifugal 
creamer. This viscous matter appears to have the same 
chemical effect upon milk, and cream more especially, as 
animal membrane has ; viz., to change the milk sugar to 
lactic acid, and even to produce a certain chemical de- 
composition in the butter made from the cream. The 
fact that the use of the centrifugal separator effects the 
removal of this disturbing element and yields the cream 



260 



THE dairyman's MAIJUAL. 



perfectly pure, gives a still greater importance to this 
machine than would the mere meclianical separation 
of the cream from the milk. 

The differences in cream which necessarily result from 
its mode of separation from the milk lirst invite atten- 
tion. These were not brought prominently to notice 
until the recent investigations of Danish dairy experts 
made public the comparisons between the creams separ- 
ated by the different methods in use, including the cream 
remaining unseparated in the milk as well as the 
cream taken from milk transported from the dairies to 
creameries by railroad or wagon. The results of these 
experiments for a whole year are given in the following 
table, the thirty-four-hour setting in ice being taken as 
the standard: 









1 


THB CBNTRTTUGAL HAS 




PBOPORTION oy BUTTKR 1 


GIVKN MORE BUTTER 






X LBiLtU. 


1 


PER CENT than: 


MONTHS OP 


s 


1 =»■ 

^ 


If 




1 


90 


If 

-1 


SI 








o 


S 3.r 


OT 


•S 


s 


o 

T-l 


s 


-1 r 


eo 




^ 




1 


6 


3 

107.7 


22.3 






s 
^ 

o 


April 


93 1 


100 81.1102 113 


13.9 40.5 11.7 


5.5 


May 

June 

July 


92.2 


100 87.7 97.5 111.3 


98.8 


19.8 


11.3 36.3 14 2 


12.7 


94.4 


100 86.8 98.4109.6 

. . i . . . 1 . . . . ' 


95.9 


16 


9.6,26.2 11.4 

....!.. ....... 


14.2 


Aii£riiBt 


94 8 
94.7 


100 86.5 97 2 109.2 


101.3 


15.1 


9.2 26.2 12.3 
11.6 32.7 14.4 


7 8 


S'-ptrmber 


100 


84.1 97.5 111.6 


103 17.9 


8.3 




92 4 


100 
100 


81.8 102 
77.5 97 


117.6 
120.2 


113.6 27.3 17.6 43.7 15.3 


3 5 


November 


91 5 


115.1 


31.4 20 2 55.1 21.4 


4.5 


Deceni ber 


92 

92.3 

92.4 


100 
100 
100 


79.5 101 
79.7 100 9 
83.4 101.3 


119.6 

118 

116.2 


115 

110.9 

110.3 


29.9 19.6 51.1 
27.9 18 48 
25.8 16.2 39.4 


18.4 
10.9 
11.8 


4 


January 


64 


Fel>ru!iry 


5.4 


IStarch . . 


93.1 
92.1 


100 
100 


78.7100.5 


114 
114 6 


108 
107 2 


22.7 14.2 45.1 


13.6 
14 


5.6 




81.9 


99.8 


23.8 


14.3 


41 


7.1 



The remarkable difference shown by these experiments 
in favor of the '"centrifugje" is in great part due to the re- 
moval of the viscous portion of the milk which tends so 
much under other circumstances to make the milk im- 
pure and difficult to manage. 



CREAM Ais^D ITS PECULIARITIES. 261 

The report of the Director summed up the advantages 
of the centrifugal separation of the cream as folio v\^s : 

1st. The transportation of milk but once a day, which 
so far has been considered impossible in our butter fac- 
tories. The cost of transportation of the milk is thus 
decreased by half. It is no small item in favor of the 
centrifugal plan. 

2d. A great saving of time in skimming. By the 
old method, the milk required thirty-six hours setting 
before skimming. By this new system 10-,000 pounds of 
milk will yield its cream in four or five hours, and 
farmers can carry back their skimmed milk at once. 
Here again is a saving of time and temperature. The 
longer the milk has to remain in the creamery, the 
greater is the risk from the various contingencies to 
which it is liable, and in proportion as it is quickly ren- 
dered marketable and passed out of dairymen's hands 
are these lessened. 

3d. More thorough skimming and greater yield. 

4th. The centrifugal allows of the acidulation of the 
cream being brought under control. This is one of 
the most important points in butter making, and the 
only means of producing at will a butter sure to keep. 
It is also the means of obtaining cream of uniform ripe- 
ness, and thus enabling us to churn it equally clean. 

5th. The butter obtained is purer and of superior 
quality. The centrifugal extracts from the milk, from 
the cream and consequently from the butter, a large 
amount of impurities which adhere to the sides of the 
apparatus, and which old methods could not remove. 

6th. A great saving of ice. This is an imiDortant 
item; as the best results from the centrifugal are obtained 
when the milk is used soon after milking, and the 
amount of cream averages about fifteen per cent of the 
milk. As by this method nothing but the cream need 
be cooled, it is evident that there will be a saving of 



262 THE dairymaid's MAITUAL. 

eighty-five per cent of the ice used in a creamery where 
the '^ Ice System " is employed. 

7th. As the phmt necessary for a successful creamery 
is expensive, economy is an important item. By sepa- 
rating the cream immediately on receipt of milk, all 
room necessary for vats or pans is saved, except for a 
small vat for heating milk and a cream vat. The space 
necessary for the centrifugal is very small, not more than 
four by eight feet for the large size machine. The- ex- 
pense of maintenance is also greatly reduced by doing 
away with the large pans, and other appurtenances now 
necessary. 

In regard to the behavior of the cream taken from 
transported milk, the following experiments were made : 

Eight hundred pounds of milk were taken, of which 
200 pounds were immediately operated upon by the cen- 
trifuge, and 200 pounds operated on after having been 
transported. At the same time 200 pounds were im- 
mediately set in ice water, and 200 pounds set in ice 
water after having been transported, both of the lat- 
ter samples remaining in the ice water for thirty-four 
hours. For the centrifuge ex23eriments, on the one hand, 
the transported milk had been placed in 100- pound cans 
and driven about for two hours, the temperature on the 
return averaging not quite sixty-six degrees Fahren- 
heit. For the ice water experiment, on the other hand, 
the milk was first cooled tliirty minutes in ice water, 
and then was driven about one and a half hours, and the 
temperature on the return was a little over sixty-three 
and a half degrees Fahrenheit. 

Now in these experiments it was ascertained that the 
centrifuge had been able to separate the cream from the 
transported milk almost as well as that from the samples 
not transported ; the proportional figures for the amounts 
of butter made being in the following ratio : 100 repre- 
senting that from milk immediately operated in the cen- 



CKEAM AKD ITS PECULIARITIES. 



263 



trifuge ; 99.3 for the transported milk, and 98.9 for the 
cooled and transported milk. It will be seen, therefore, 
that the loss of butter has only been 0.7 and 1.1 per cent. 
But for the ice system the loss of butter was considerably 
more, amounting to 4.4 and 8.8 per cent, respectively, 
for the two samples referred to as being treated under 
that system. 

In order to determine more definitely the relative in- 
fluence exerted on the rising of the cream on account 
of the milk being transported, or from being cooled, 
a series of experiments were made in a creamery con- 
ducted only on the ice system. Part of the milk was 
placed in ice water immediately, while another part 
after having been left standing and then subjected to 
transportation was also placed in ice water, the time for 
skimming being the same for both samples. The point 
sought to be determined was whether the shaking or the 
cooling of the milk during the drive had the more influ- 
ence in arresting the creaming, and the result of the ex- 
periments will be found in the following table : 

AVERAGE FIGURES FOR AMOUNT OF BUTTER AND FOR TEMPERATURE 
OF MILK WHEN SET IN ICE. 



Co 



5> 



After Driving. 



I 






-« 






^ ' 



Thirty-four hours ekimming; driven 2 hours; 

3 trials -average figures 100.00 95.00 96.50 98 

Temperature— degrees Fahr ! 82.2-2 63 68B4.22I75 

Thiriy-four hours skiminin<:: cnolen in ice 1 hour;! 

driven or standing \\ hours; 4 trials; avera-^e 

fl'-riTi'S ■..100 00 87.10 86.70 

Temperature— degree* Fniir I 88.52 48.56 48 20 

Ten hours skimminL^; 'coolod with ice 1 liour;! 

driven or standing 2j- hours; 4 trijils ; average 

figures [100.00 73.00 

Temperature— degrees Fahr 88 34 47 84 



40 96 80 
08 66.74 



70.60 
47.66 



The milk which was left standing was placed outside 
the creamery, while the other samples were driven about. 



264 THE DAiRYMAN*S MANUAL. 

For the railroad transpart the milk was driven between 
the creamery and depot, taking say twenty minutes, 
and on the train (for the first column) from one depot to 
another and directly back again, in all sixteen miles ; 
and for the last column in all forty-four miles, with a 
waiting time between of one-half hour. 

In looking over the result as indicated in the preceding 
table, the question occurs whether it is the cooling 
which the milk has undergone, in connection with the 
time that has passed before it was placed in ice, that is 
the cause of the loss of butter, or whether it is the driv- 
ing or the shaking caused by driving. But this last did 
not seem to have any, or at least only a little, influence, 
while the cooling seems to have been the principal cause 
of the loss of butter, which loss also increases with the 
cooling. 

In the following table of figures it is shown that the 
milk, after driving, could, by heating, be brought back 
almost to its natural condition, so far as cream rising is 
concerned. Indeed, it was proved by several trials that 
the cooled milk, when raised to a temperature near the 
natural heat of the cow — say 100 degrees Fahrenheit — 
exhibited a remarkable change in the sej^aration of its 
cream, and this influence on the rising of the cream 
from heating the cooled milk led to experiments in heat- 
ing the driven milk to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and also 
heating to the temperature the milk generally has when 
it comes from the stable to the dairy-house, say about 
eighty-six "degrees Fahrenheit. This was the tempera- 
ture of all the samples of milk in the first column of the 
table ; while the other three samples, after driving, had 
the temperature of the column marked ° Fahrenheit. 
The heating of the samples for the two last columns to 
86 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit was done by surrounding 
the milk with warm water at a temperature of 113 to 131 
degrees Fahrenheit. 



CKEAM AND ITS PECULIARITIES. 



2Go 



AVERAGE FIGURES FOR AMOUNT OF BUTTER AND TEMPERATURE OP 

THE DRIVEN MILK. 

IN ICE, 



Slaqelse Creamery. 



JSft 



Afte?' Driving. 



Tliiity-four hours skimming; driven 2 hours; 6 trials. . . lUO 95.7 68.36 
Thiriy-four liouis skimming; cooled i hour; driven 1^ 

hours; G trials in April ...100,91.0 

Tliirty-foui- hours skimming; cooled i hour; driven li | 

liours; 6 trials in March , 100j86.3 

Thiriy-lour hours skimming; cooled 1 hour; driven IJ | 

hours; 4 trials in April and May 100,86.7 

Ten hours skimming; cooled ^ hour; driven H hours! 

-4 trials 100183.3 

Ten hours skimming; cooled 1 hour; driven 3i^ hour 

(railroad); 4 trials 



100 



Eosenfeldt. 
Tiiirty-four hours skimming: cooled i hour ; driven U 
hours ; 5 trials llOO 



70.6 



89.4 



54,50 

48 74 
48.20 
52.34 

49 66 



51.44 



97.2 
93.6 
92.9 

87.0 
90.0 



98.6 
98.5 
99.0 
98.9 
97.7 
96.8 

95.6 



Some of these columns of experiments are made in 
connection with those set down in the former table, and 
therefore the figures in the second column do not give 
anything new; but the figures in the columns for the 
heating to 86 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit, show that 
tlie heating to 86 degrees certainly does some good, but 
not much, while the resistance of the milk for cream- 
ing, caused by coohng and driving, has been almost en- 
tirely overcome by heating it to a temperature of 104 de- 
grees Fahrenheit, and this not only when skimming was 
done after the milk had set thirty-four hours, bnt also 
when skimming was done after ten hours' setting, since 
the loss of butter for the milk cooled one hour and 
driven three and a half hours is decreased from 29.4 per 
cent for the cold sample to 3.2 per cent for the sample 
heated to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. 

It will be observed, however, that in the last column 
of experiments the result at Rosenfeldt, in heating the 
milk to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, was not as favorable as 



^C6 I'HE i)AIRYMA]S:^S MAKrAL. 

at Slaqelse, but the milk at the last establishment was 
all taken from one stable adjoining the creamery, and 
was consequently of uniform character as to quality. 

These experiments show that there is an important ad- 
vantage obtained in the quantity of butter by heating 
such milk to 104 degrees Fahrenheit before setting 
aside to cream. This will be especially the case where 
the milk before or during transportation is reduced to a 
low temperature, as in cold weather, and again in hot 
weather, when it is found necessary to cool the milk at 
the farm before transportation, in order that it may 
arrive at the creamery in good condition. 'No loss from 
cooling will be sustained if the milk, before setting, is 
raised to a temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. 

A singular peculiarity was observed in the cream from 
the milk which had been cooled, driven, and again heated 
to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. While by exact skimming the 
quantity of cream from the three samples was nearly the 
same (namely,, sixteen per cent), it was in this sample 
eighteen per cent, and the time required for churning 
had been almost twice as long for the samples heated to 
86 degrees as for those heated to 104 degrees Fahrenheit; 
and this was the case whether the cream was churned 
sweet or sour. Again, the cream from the sample of milk 
heated to 86 degrees, though it weighed most, did not 
appear the thinnest, yielded less butter than that from 
the milk heated to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and the 
cream of this sample also appeared thin. 

Some remarkable observations were made in churning 
siveet cream. By the centrifuge experiments it was no- 
ticed that when the centrifuge cream, after its separation 
from the milk, was from 58.1 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, 
and directly afterwards was cooled to the usual cliurning 
temperature of 57.2 degrees, and was then churned, the 
yield of butter was about seventeen per cent less than 
when the cream was first cooled to 33.8 degrees, and then 



CEEAM AKB ITS PECULIARITIES. 26*7 

heated "to 57.2 degrees and churned. A cooling to 46.4 
degrees gave about the same result as cooling to 33.8 de- 
grees. 

In a longer series of experiments afterward undertaken 
at Rosvang with cream raised in shallow pans, partly at a 
temperature below 55.4 degrees and partly above 60.8 
degrees Fahrenheit, it was found that the *'pan cream/' 
raised in temperature below 55.4 degrees Fahrenheit, 
made a yield of butter only 2.3 per cent more, when the 
cream was coolod by ice before it was heated to churn- 
ing temperature ; while of the samples of cream raised in 
over 60.8 degrees temperature, there was gained 19.2 per 
cent of butter by the cooling. Hence in practice it was 
found advisable during hot weather to cool both the 
*' centrifuge cream" and the ^'pan cream" with ice. 

The chemical changes which occur in cream are pro- 
duced by the effect of oxidation, and the results of 
the internal decomposition caused by the breaking up 
of the atoms of the milk sugar (lactose) in the milk con- 
tained in the cream, and the consequent formation of 
lactic acid. This acid is a viscous substance, and has 
precisely the same effect upon the cream as a solution 
of gelatine would have, and when cream containing a 
large quantity of this acid is churned it foams and be- 
comes beaten up into a still finer and smoother emul- 
sion but will never make butter. This effect may be 
thus explained: 

The milk sugar is changed to lactic (or milk) acid by 
the action of the caseine of the milk in a manner which 
is as yet somewhat obscure, but it is merely a changed 
position, as it were, of the elements forming each of 
these substances. The following diagram of the change 
is given, with such explanation as may make it plain 
to those even who are unacquainted with chemistry. 
An atom or volume of sng.ir of milk is composed ulti- 
mately of twenty-four atoms of carbon and twenty-four 



268 THE DAIRYMAN^S MANUAL. 

atoms of water ; one atom or volume of lactic (or milk) 
acid is composed of six atoms of carbon and six atoms of 
water. Using the chemical symbols for these ultimate 
components we have : 

MUk sugar ^ 24C + 24 H2O 
Lactic acid = 6C + 6 H2O 

If, then, one volume of the former can be separated 
into four parts, or its components can bo transposed, we 
have four volumes of the latter ; and instead of one vol- 
ume of sugar, or sweet substance, we have four of an 
acid. Here is no infusion of a new element, nothing 
is added, nothing is taken away; a transposition, '^a 
shuffle and a new deal," if it may be so expressed, is 
made, and a sweet liquid is changed into an acid one. 
The change is very simple to one who is accustomed to 
consider chemical substitutions, yet its important effects 
are typical of those changes which are continually occur- 
ring in milk and all its products. 

The viscosity of cream may be reduced by diluting it 
with water. The water increases the bulk of the viscous 
acid milk, and so releases the butter globules from its ad- 
hesive embrace and enables* the butter to '' come." This 
watering process may be used for the recovery of cream 
which is too acid for churnipg or which has been churned 
without bringing butter. Any considerable proportion 
of water may be added to the cream and the mixture left 
for the cream to rise, which it does rapidly. The water 
is then drawn off from under the cream and more water 
is added and afterwards removed. The cream may then 
be churned with ease. 

Cream so washed makes butter of the very best keep- 
ing quality. The spoiling of butter is due to those ele- 
ments of the cream which causes this viscosity. Some 
cream may contain more than one of these ; viz., in ad- 
dition to the acid there may exist the peculiar animal 
impurities previously mentioned, whose removal will 



CKEAM A'^D ITS PECULIARITIES. 269 

very much irfiproye the character of the cream and but- 
ter, and thus this washing maybe resorted to for the pur- 
pose of freeing oyer-sour cream from taints of all kinds. 

Much has been written about churning sweet cream. 
There is an unwritten side of this subject, however, 
which has been ignored by persons who have advocated 
this practice, but which should be noticed. When sweet 
•cream is put into the churn and violently agitated, the 
particles are separated and become profusely mixed with 
air, heat is also generated, and the process of oxidation 
is rapidly performed ; thus in effect the same results are 
attained, only in a longer time than in churning sour or 
"ripe" cream. And sweet cream requires a considerably 
longer time to churn than cream that is slightly acid, or 
in the best condition for making butter. So in reality 
there is but a slight difference between the butter made 
from sweet cream after its long churning, and the acid 
or ripe cream ; and that difference is in favor of the ripe 
cream, the butter from which has a perfect flavor which 
that from sweet cream lacks. ^ 

One of the desirable uses of cream in its sweet state is 
for making clouted cream, a delicious article of food, 
a substitute for butter, or a condiment for fruit and 
pastry. It is made as follows : The milk having stood 
in shallow pans for twelve hours, the pans of milk are set 
upon a stove or heater without any disturbance of the 
cream and are gradually brought to a heat of 180 de- 
grees, at which temperature the cream becomes slightly 
wrinkled or "crinkled." The pans are then put back 
into the dairy. In twenty-four hours more a thick solid 
skin of cream is thrown up, which can be rolled up and 
lifted off from the milk without falling apart. This 
cream is then sold for immediate use as above mentioned, 
or is made into cream cheese, or is churned into butter 
while it is sweet. The butter thus made has a flat in- 
sipid flavor, but will keep good a long time. 



270 THE dairymak's manual. 

The ripening of cream for the churu is a process which 
requires time and heat in definite ratios. That is, thirty- 
six hours and sixty degrees of temperature are required 
to bring the cream skimmed from perfectly sweet milk to 
4 the right stage of acidity for clmruing. If the milk has 
been kept for twelve hours after it has turaed distinctly 
'sour, twenty-four hours will be enough for the perfect 
ripening of the cream for the churn. If kept longer 
than this, viscosity is produced, and this is one of the 
early stages of that final decomposition of the milk which 
produces the disagreeable flavors of butter arising from 
the formation of essential oils. These oils result from the 
decomposition of, first, the lactic acid, anS, second, that 
of the caaeine which may remain in the butter. These 
changes will be more particularly described when we 
come to consider the nature of butter. But as this 
viscosity in the cream is the germ, as it were, by which 
the clianges are set in progress, its production is to be 
avoided most assiduously. 

The right stage of cream for churning is when acid 
is perceptible, and an agreeable aromatic odor is given 
off from the cream jar. This is reached at the instant 
when the lactic acid begins to break up into butyric acid 
by a simple chemical combination. This is brought 
about by the effect of the caseine which has previously 
changed the milk sugar into milk (lactic) acid and now 
still further acts upon this acid to transform it. Such 
action is accompanied by a fermentation in which car- 
bonic acid and hydrogen with some water are evolved and 
escape from the cream, and one and a half atoms of lactic 
acid are wholly decomposed and give off this carbonic 
acid and water, hydrogen requiring twelve atoms of 
oxygen to effect the change. This oxygen is taken 
from four other atoms of lactic acid, which is by this 
deprivation converted into three atoms of butyric acid, 
the substance that gives the aroma to butter made 



CREAM AND ITS PECULIARITIES. 271 

from fully ripened cream. Butter made from sweet cream 
lacks this aroma and flavor, and must be kept for some 
time to acquire it by an internal process of decomposi- 
tion, produced from the slow change of its inherent ele- 
ments in much the same way as here described. This 
ripening process is analogous to that of fruits in which 
the woody fiber of the hard, crude, unripe fruit changes 
to the pulp, gum and sugar of the fully ripe fruit. To 
explain this let us take 

4 atoms of lactic acid = C24H48O24 
3 atoms of butyiic acid = C24H48O13 



Then 



Produce 



Leaving da 

IVa atoms of lactic acid = C9 HieOa 
Adding O13 

C9 HigOai 

9 atoms of carbonic acid = C» — Ois 

12 atoms of hydrogen •= — Hi 2 — 

3 atoms of water = — He O3 

C9 HisOai 

In this manner the change, which goes on by an in- 
ternal decomposition and breaking up of an unstable 
element of tlie cream, is entirely accounted for. But it 
is the business of the dairyman to watch his cream and 
prevent the ripening from going too far and developing 
into injurious acidity. Hence the temperature is a most 
important thing to control and regulate, for if it is in 
excess of the normal point, time is to be reduced; but the 
careful dairyman will not work by '^rule of thumb" in 
so serious a matter, when a twenty-five cent thermometer 
will act as a safe standard and guide in this respect. 

Now the behavior Qf cream in the churn is controlled 
by this element of ripening, and although all previous 
requisites, feeding and perfect cleanliness in manage- 
inent in the cows, skillful milking and care of the milk 



272 THE dairyman's manual. 

up to this point, may have been secured, yet a lapse in 
this will spoil all, and previous success be obliterated. 

In the management of a public dairy or creamery, 
where cream is purchased of numerous patrons, some 
test of quality is required for the mterest of the purchaser. 
There has always been a difficulty in the way of intro- 
ducing creameries into new and desirable localities, be- 
cause of the impossibility of making a Just division of 
the jDroceeds among the patrons. We have seen how 
cream varies in quality and contents of fat, and how 
some COWS' milk is more productive than that of others. 
But in the creamery all the cream is taken by measure, 
and heretofore there has been no precise or satisfactory 
method of determining the actual value of the cream 
taken in, for the yield, of biitter. Every patron cast into 
the pool, as it were, so much weight of coin, gold, silver, 
nickel or copper, and each received the same pay for the 
tveight only of his contribution. This glaring injustice 
has been resisted by the dairymen who keep Jersey or 
Guernsey cows, or improved and costly animals, and 
who feed them high for the sake of the profit. Hence 
it has long been the aim of owners of creameries and 
of manufacturers of creamery suj)plies to find some 
means of equalizing the amount of pay with the actual 
amount of butter in the cream gathered. After many 
attempts the so-called *^oil test" has been adopted. 

This *^oil test" is simply the actual churning of a 
sample of the cream gathered from each dairy, so as to 
ascertain by this practical test the quantity of fat con- 
tained in the cream. Each patron skims his own cream 
and prepares it for the collector. He may safely skim it 
quite close and take the thickest cream, or he may, if 
so immorally disposed, put in as n-uich milk or water as 
he wishes, to thin it and make it measure more. It is 
all the same to the cream gatherer. He takes the cream, 
pours it into his own measuring can and notes in his forms 



CKEAM A^D ITS PECULIARITIES. 273 

or blanks specially provided the inches and tenths in 
depth by his rule. He then thoroughly stirs the cream 
and takes from it a certain quantity in a marked glass 
tube. These tubes are carefully placed in a frame or 
card provided for them, each marked with the patron's 
number for identification. There is nothing to prevent 
each patron from taking a parallel sample and testing 
it for himself, and everyone should do this for his own 
sake and satisfaction. 

On arrival at the creamery the cards of tubes are handed 
over to the manager with the cream gathered all in bulk. 
This bulking and mixing of the cream is indispensable 
for the production of an even quality of butter. The 
cards of tubes are set away to be properly ripened, 
and are then put into a frame in a churn specially pro- 
vided for them. The cream is churned by oscillating 
the frame rapidly till the butter comes in all the samples. 
When this is done the tubes are all set in water hot 
enough to melt the butter — about 150 degrees. When 
fully melted, the butter or ail rises to the top and shows 
a distinct line from the buttermilk, so that its depth can 
be accurately measured. This done, tlie manager pro- 
ceeds to determine the depth of the oil, and to record 
the results in tire blank form partly filled out by the 
collector. The measuring is done by applying to the 
oil a scale having for a unit of measure the depth of oil 
that corresponds to one pound of butter from a gauge of 
cream, or a pound for each inch in depth of cream in a 
vessel just one foot in diameter. This unit of measure 
is graduated into 100 equal parts. If the depth of the 
oil is exactly equal to one unit of measure, the cream 
from which the sample was taken will yield just one 
pound of butter to the inch or gauge ; if it overruns or 
falls short of the unit of measure, the yield per gauge 
will overrun or fall short just according to the number 
of hundredths it varies ono way or the other. As hQ 



274 THE dairyman's makual. 

measures the oil the manager sets down the rate per inch 
in the collector's blank, and by multiplying the inches 
of cream by the rate per inch, fills out the last two 
columns with the weight of butter due to each patron's 
cream. It seems to be difficult to get any more satisfactory 
test than this, because the dairyman can duplicate it by 
procuring a set of the marked tubes and using them for 
himself. 

A few lines may be usefully devoted to the subject of 
the value of cream in the market as food, and as a medic- 
inal agent for the nutrition of dyspeptics and consump- 
tive patients. The use of fatty emulsions in medicine is 
very extensive, cod liver oil being the material used 
because of its close similarity in composition to the fats 
of the human body. Butter fat, as it exists in cream, 
however, is identical in composition with human fats. 
As the fat of cream is in a state of already prepared 
emulsion and perfectly fitted for digestion and assimila- 
tion, cream becomes a most valuable article of food and 
of wholesome nutriment for persons of weak digestion 
and assimilation. The producer of any useful food sub- 
stance shoiFld make himself fully acquainted with every 
valuable characteristic of it, and this most useful purpose 
to which cream may be applied should not be ignored 
by dairymen. No doubt if some enterprising dairyman, 
able and willing to do it, should put pure sweet cream 
upon the market in sealed cans or bottles, he would find 
a most remunerative demand for his product. 



CHURNING AND CHURNS. 275 

CHAPTER XX. 
CHURNING AND CHURNS. 

The process of cliurning is a very simple one. From 
what has been preyiously stated in regard to the physical 
character of milk and cream — the nature of the minute 
globules of butter fat suspended in the cream; the chemi- 
cal composition of milk and cream, and the changes which 
occur in these substances as the process of decomposition 
begins and proceeds; the results of changes of temperature 
upon the cream and the progress of this decomposition, 
with the absolute necessity for the observance of perfect 
cleanliness all through the work of the dairy — it may be 
easily understood tliat a certain carefulness of manage- 
ment, up to the point when the cream is put into the 
churn and the process of churning Is begun, is strictly 
indispensable for the prodaction of good butter. 

Let us repeat in a few words some simjDle rules for the 
guidance of the dairyman in his work up to this point, 
when a new departure is undertaken. 

Fi7'st. — The best cows should be procured, and they 
should be well bred, w^ell fed, well lodged, and kept 
thoroughly clean and comfortable, contented and happy. 

Second. — The milk should be drawn in the most 
cleanly manner, thoroughly strained, and carried at once 
to the milk -house, where it is set in a pure atmosphere 
at a temperature of forty-five degrees for deep setting 
and sixty to sixty-two degrees for shallow setting. 

Third. — Twenty-four hours is long enough for the 
milk to stand in deep pails, and thirty-six hours for shal- 
low pans, before the cream is removed, and under the 
above rules the milk should be perfectly sweet at the 
skimming. 



276 THE DAIRYMAIs^'s MA.NUAL. 

Fourth. — The cream should be kept twenty-four to 
thirty-six hours at a temperature of sixty degrees ; but 
no longer than until it is slightly acid, the time being 
wholly immaterial. This condition of the cream is the 
important point to be watched with extreme carefulness, 
whatever the time or temperature ; but those above men- 
tioned will be found to secure the desired result as a rule. 

Fifth. — Every utensil used in the processes up to this 
point should be of tin and kept scrupulously clean. 

Sixth. — Whenever fresh cream is added to the jar the 
whole should be stirred, to secure a thorough mixture of 
the whole, that all may ripen evenly. 

The careful observance of these six rules will bring the 
cream to the churn in the right condition for making 
butter in the best manner. The French have a proverb 
to the effect that '^one who excuses, accuses himself." 
This should be adopted as a guiding rule in the dairy; 
for whenever anything goes wrong, and an excuse that 
this or that is the reason for it, the dairyman accuses 
himself of some mistake, neglect, or ignorance, and one 
is as blamable as another. Accidents should never (or 
hardly ever, for we are all weak creatures at the best), 
occur in the dairy; constant vigilance is the price of 
safety from these blunders called accidents, ill-luck, etc. 

The churn is next to be considered. And there are 
churns and churns, 1,200 or more of them ; but not 
more than a dozen in use. Perhaps no more painful 
instance of the waste of energy, thought, time, and 
money exists in the history of mankind, than is 'shown 
by the collection of models of useless churns stored in 
the Patent Office lumber-room at Washington. And yet 
they come, more futile efforts to get something for 
nothing, and to annihilate time or power in futile at- 
tempts to produce a certain mechanical effect by the use 
of unavailing substitutes. 

Churning is a mechanical effect, the simple aggrega- 



tion of the butter globules into masses by throwing 
them violently together. There is now no caseous 
follicle to be rubbed off by pressure of the dasher and 
squeezing the globules between a close-fitting dash and 
the sides of the churn. No weary woman need now keep 
on an exhaustive effort to effect this wearing away a 
tough envelope, hour after hour, w4th the laborious up 
and down churn (most injurious to the vital organs of a 
female), because the follicle has no longer any existence, 
even in the imagination of the dairy experts, and because 
she may sit at ease in a chair and get the very best of 
butter in twenty minutes, or less, if she choose. 

What we know of cream now makes the work of the 
churn plain and simple. Most of the work heretofore 
supposed to be necessarily done in the churn is now per- 
formed previously. There is no chemical action to be 
secured by aeration and oxidation; the churning might, 
in fact, be quite as well performed in an air-tight closed 
box, were it not that the fric- 
tion of the particles of cream 
affects the production of more 
lactic acid and the decomposi- 
tion of some of it into butyric 
acid, with the disengagement 
of some carbonic acid and hy- 
drogen gases, as was explained 
in the last chapter. These gases 
require a vent, and hence an 
opening in the churn is pro- Fig. 50.-microscopic appear- 

. T T 1 . , . , T , , ANCE or CREAM. 

vided which is closed by a cork 

or peg, excepting as this is taken out to let the gas escape 
at the early period of the churning. This chemical ac- 
tion, however, is incident to the churning, and is not one 
of the effects desired or calculated for. The sole effect 
is to throw the particles of fat in -the cream against each 
other so as to cause them to adhere. 




276 



THE DAtRYMAK S MAN^tJAL. 



A study of the illustration (figure 50) will clearly 
explain the mechanical effect of the churning. It repre- 
sents a sam2:>le of thick cream taken from a Cooley pail 
after the milk had stood forty-eight hours and the cream 
had consolidated until it had fifty per cent of butter in 
it (a quart of it made two pounds of butter), and was 
almost of the consistence of clouted cream. It will 
be seen that the globules of butter have gathered into 
masses, each mass forming a nucleus for a larger aggre- 




Fig. 51. — GRANULAR BUTTER AS IT COMES FROM THE CHURN. 



gation. This particular lot of cream, eighteen and a half 
pounds in weight, was prepared for churning to ascertain 
the time required. It is easily seen that cream such as 
this might be supposed to churn very quickly, because 
the butter globules had already come together in con- 
siderable loose masses. The butter was made and taken 
from the churn in the form shown at figure 51, in 
eight and a half minutes, the churn used being the Rec- 



CHtJfil^Iira AKD CHURNS. 



^79 



tangular, a section of which is shown at figure 52 (c), 
for the purpose of ilkistrating the actual process of 
churning. 

When cream is first put into the churn it is violently 
agitated. But the amount and force of the agitation 
varies with the kind of churn used. The common dash ; 
churn (figure 52, a) is operated by a flat dasher which 
is forcibly moved up and down in the cream, causing a 
motion of the cream in the way indicated by the lines. 
The cream is forced from the center of the churn to the 




Fig. 53. — EFFECTS OF CHUENINGS. 

sides, over the edge of the dasher iand back to the cen- 
ter, where it meets the cream from opposite sides, and 
thus it is dashed together. Being unconfined, however, 
the force of the collision is very much lessened, and the 
cream escapes in spray or waves which rebound from 
the sides of the churn and fall back. 

At b, in the same figure, is a representation of the 
horizontal dash churn, of which the well-known Blanch- 
ard churn is a popular type. The bottom of most of 



280 THE DAIRYMAK^S MAKUAt. 

these churns, however, is rounded and not square, for 
the sake of more easy cleaning. This advantage, how- 
ever, we think is gained at the expense of effect, but it 
accords with the popular preference. In this kind of 
churn, when it is not filled quite so high as the axle, 
the dasher comes down upon the cream with a sudden 
impact and forces it into close contact as it is thrown by 
the arm against the top and opposite side of the churn. 
The dasher being partly open permits part of the cream 
to pass through and complicates the agitation. 

At c is a section of the Rectangular churn, a square 
box mounted on gudgeons at the opposite angles. The 
cream, never more than to half fill the chum, is most 
violently dashed against the sides of this churn as it is 
rotated by the handle ; and as the box is hung by oppo- 
site corners, the cream comes twice into collision with 
each of these six sides, being dashed against one and re- 
bounding to the other to be forced instantly against the 
next one, and so on continually. As the rotation is made 
about eighty times in a minute, there are no less than 
960 distinct blows given to the cream in this short pe- 
riod. Consequently the butter is quickly brought to the 
granular condition in this churn ; on one occasion the 
churning being fully completed by the author in five 
minutes. 

The violent dashing of the cream brings the globules 
of butter into collision, and when the temperature is 
quite right, and the globules are consequently in an ad- 
hesive condition, they rapidly gather into small masses, 
and these into larger ones, until the butter appears in 
grains like those of wheat and buckwheat, when the 
churning is completed. Any furthej.' churning is in- 
jurious to the butter. If the temperature of the cream 
is too low, and the butter globules are consequently too 
hard, they will not adhere together; they may gather 
into masses by the force of cohesion, as is shown in 



CHUENING AND CHURKS. 281 

figure 50, in which the attraction of the globules for 
each other has caused the aggregation of most of them 
into masses, but these masses will break apart again and 
, the butter will appear as grains of sand washing back 
and forth in the buttermilk, but refusing to be collected 
any more closely together. 

If the temperature is too high and the butter is too 
soft, the globules may gather into masses, but are beaten 
apart again and may even be broken up more finely than 
wheu in their natural condition, and so form a smooth 
viscous emulsion which is beaten into a foaming mass 
from which it is in vain to try to procure butter. The 
normal temperature for churning cream is sixty to sixty- 
two degrees, but this may vary either way with the 
weather. In winter sixty-five or seventy degrees may 
be permitted, and in hot weather fifty-five degrees may 
be right. In case of difficulty in either direction, water, 
cold or warmed, as the condition of the cream may 
need, may be added to the cream in the churn to remove 
the trouble and bring the batter. When the cream is 
too sour, and is thick and adhesive and foams in the 
churn, the addition of water is sufficient to obviate the 
impediment to the churning, by thinning the mass and 
reducing the viscosity of it. 

When the butter appears in the churn in small grains 
or pellets the churning should stop. One can very soon 
learn to recognize the sound made by the churn when 
butter has come ; yet it is well to have some other guide, 
and this is easily secured by fitting a piece of plate-glass 
in the cover of the churn. When the butter has come 
the glass will become very nearly clear, and the small 
fragments of butter may be seen upon it. Over-churn- 
ing has the effect of injimng the texture of the butter, 
and changing the waxy, almost crystalline appearance 
into a soft, greasy one. When the butter is in the best 
condition after churning, it appears as a mass of small 



282 THE DaIRYMAK's MAKUAL. 

granules loosely adhering together, but which easily fall 
apart when floated in cold water. These granules are no 
no larger than the capsules of beet seed, and many of 
them are not more than half or a quarter as large, and 
wdien some cold water is poured into the churn to harden 
them, they are kept separate and do not adhere in a mass. 
The prmcipal complaints of the behavior of the cream 
in the churn are — difficulty of procuring the butter ; 
foaming of the cream ; wdiite specks in the butter ; 
soft, white butter ; and waste of cream in the butter- 
milk. These troubles may arise from improper feeding 
of the cow ; from too long keeping of the cream ; from 
keeeping the cream at too low a temperature ; from 
churning at too low a temperature ; and from the condi- 
tion of the cow. I will consider them one by one, as 
these are very frequent causes of complaint, especially 
by inexperienced dairymen and in family dairies. 

When the butter will not come, the dairywoman may 
w^ork for hours and all her labor may be sjDent in vain, 
■unless she is told to raise the temperature of the cream 
by throwing into the churn a quantity of water. On 
one occasion in churning a lot of cream which was full 
of small butter the butter would not gather, the cream 
being smooth and somewhat stiff. To test the case the 
churning was continued for seven hours, and still the cream 
was unchanged. The temperature was sixty-two degi-ees. 
A few quarts of water, sufficient to raise the temperature 
to sixty-five degrees, w^ere turned in, and in two minutes 
the butter gathered, but it was white and of bad flavor. 
This w-as in the winter. Over-churning had added six 
months to its age, for the excessive exposure to the air 
in the long churning bad been equivalent to several 
months' keeping in the pail and had utterly spoiled the 
quality. But the low temperature was not the real cause 
of the trouble, for the next churning, noted exactly be- 
cause it was made in a new churn, was at a temperature 



CHURNIN^G AKD CHURKS. 283 

of sixty-two degrees, and the butter came in eleven min 
utes. The next churning was at sixty-five degrees and but- 
ter came in eight minutes. So that it could not have been 
the temperature at which the cream was churned ; but — 
as it was on January 3d, and the w^eather liad been very 
cold, the cream-cellar having been down to forty degrees 
for several days — it was the low temperature at which 
the cream had been kept that caused the difficulty. 
Cream that is kept at a temperature of at least fifty-five 
to sixty degrees, and not more than three days, may 
always be churned in thirty minutes at a temperature 
of sixty-two to sixty-five degrees, if the churn is a 
good one, and in the best churns butter will come in 
from ten to twenty minutes. 

Foaming of cream in the churn may be due to too low 
or too high a temperature, or too long keeping ; slow, 
delayed churning is often accompanied by foaming. As 
soon as the churning begins, air is rapidly intermingled 
with the cream and innumerable vesicles are formed, each 
containing air. This expands the cream (as in whipped 
cream for cooking), and it is really foaming ; but under 
proper circumstances this foaming subsides as rapidly, 
and the noiseless motion of the churn quickly changes to 
a *'• slap-dash" sound, which precedes the more sharply 
liquid sound of the coming butter. If the cream is too 
warm for the particles of butter to unite, the emulsion 
(foaming) continues until the remedy — a decrease of 
temperature by addition of cold water — is aj)plied. But 
this emulsion may be formed in another way, and is 
often thus formed in the summer, by too long standing 
of the cream on the milk, or too long keeping of the 
cream before it is churned. The cause of it is the for- 
mation of alcohol in the milk by the decomposition of 
the milk sugar, and the combination of the alcohol with 
the fat and the formation of a soap. When this happens 
no amount of churning will bring the butter. It may 



284 THE DAIRYMAIS-^S MANUAL. 

be expected when, on skimming the cream from the milk, 
a layer of whey-like or watery liquid is seen to have been 
formed between the milk and the cream, and the milk is 
thick and loppered under it. To prevent the trouble, 
half a teaspoonful of baking soda or saleratus may be 
stirred in the cream pot when the cream has been poured 
into it ; and this should always be done, when this has 
occurred, at least one day before the cream is churned. 
The washing of the cream previously described will also 
remove the cause of this trouble. 

White specks in the butter are the result of a too rapid 
souring of the milk or of keeping the cream in too warm 
a place and not stirring it every day when fresh cream is 
added to it. When fresh cream, with milk mixed with 
it, comes in contact with the sour cream, this milk is 
immediately curdled and the small flakes of curd become 
inclosed in masses of cream. When the cream is churned 
these hardened flakes of curd become mixed with the 
granules of butter and cannot be separated from them 
by washing. Coloring will not disguise this fault, for 
the curd will not take the color as the cream will ; 
the coloring is prepared either with potash or oil, and 
either of these easily unite with the butter, while they 
will not mix with curd. The only cure for this defect 
is prevention, by care in managing the cream. But some- 
times these specks may be caused by small particles of 
dry, hard cream from the sides of pans when the milk 
has been kept too long. Or the milk, from some condi- 
tion of the cow, may contain an excess of albumen, which 
is quickly coagulated by a very low condition of acidity, 
and thus these small masses of albumen appear as soft 
specks in the butter. 

Soft, white butter is caused by uneven temperature in 
the dairy and by the freezing of the cream or the milk, 
as well as by the food given to the cows. Some kinds 
of food will spoil the best cows as regards the quality 



CHURNING AND CHURNS. 285 

of the butter, for the time being, and all such should 
be discarded from the dairy. Potatoes, fed raw, have 
this effect, with the addition of a disagreeable flavor ; 
and buckwheat bran or meal has a very distinct effect in 
this way. A week's feeding of buckwheat bran will pro- 
duce butter of the texture and color of lard. But just 
here it is a question of management of the cream rather 
than of feeding that is to be considered. It is of impor- 
tance that everything about a dairy should be regular 
and unchangeable. And in the care of the dairy, tem- 
perature is one of the essential conditions. If this is 
neglected and the cream is permitted to freeze, the but- 
ter will be white and soft, or sometimes crumbly and 
break into small fragments. The color may be made 
right by the addition of coloring, but the soft texture 
will remain and the butter will lose its proper waxiness 
and become greasy, and this is beyond remedy. The 
cause must be prevented by providing some means of 
warming the dairy to keep the temperature even. 

Waste of cream in the buttermilk is the effect of too 
long keeping, and not stirring the cream to secure even- 
ness of condition. When the cream is turned out into 
the churn, if the bottom is watery and has a peculiar 
sweet and whey-like smell, that part of the cream will 
foam and form an emulsion, and will not mingle with 
the butter. When the butter is removed from the churn, 
this remains in the buttermilk, and after standing some 
time will appear as an oily substance on the surface. 
Some persons have supposed that the mixing of different 
cows' milk, or the cream from such milk, produces such 
a waste as this, because when one portion of the cream 
is churned another is not. The author has carefully 
investigated this point for some years, but has never 
found any evidence tending to support it until the recent 
publication of some experience by a person who stated 
that he had qhurned the cream of several cows separately. 



286 THE dairyman's manual. 

and then mixed, and the result was a very marked loss 
in the mixed cream. The loss was so enormous that 
some error might be suspected, and at any rate nothing 
has ever been found to support this statement. On the 
contrary, it has been fouud many times that the cream 
of a cow, which by itself required thirty minutes to 
churn, was made into butter in twelve minutes when 
churned with that of another cow whose cream always 
churned rapidly. A great many trials of cows by churn- 
ing their cream separately and then with that of others 
never yet showed any loss. This result is reasonable; for 
when we consider how butter is gathered in the churn 
and one particle collects with itself other particles until 
small granules of butter are formed, and these gather 
into larger grains by their natural cohesiveness, it is 
impossible to believe that the butter of one cow can re- 
main in the churn by itself without mixing with the 
rest, or that if it did it would not leave such very ap- 
parent traces of itself in the buttermilk that it could 
not be lost. If any cream is lost it cannot happen 
in this way without palj^able evidence ; but it is lost 
frequently by mismanaging the cream in the manner 
previously indicated. The cream is then found floating 
on the buttermilk, but it is not in such a condition that 
it can be made into butter of good quality. 



CHAPTEE XXL 

BUTTER. 

When the butter is brought to the granular condition 
mentioned in the preceding chapter, it goes through 
the first operations by Avhich it is prepared for use and 
market. The most important of these is the separation 
of the buttermilk, which, from its character, is a very 



BUTTEE. 287 

potent element of decomposition, and would soon spoil 
the butter. Buttermilk is a thick viscous fluid contain- 
ing a large quantity of lactic acid, and we have seen 
how this acid not only rapidly changes into products 
injurious to butter, but it contains caseine, which is 
another element of destructive change in the butter. 
This will be more fully treated of further on, but is 
mentioned here to impress upon the butter-maker the 
very great importance of getting rid of every particle 
of the buttermilk. The granular form of the butter 
very much facilitates this separation of the buttermilk, 
and if the churning is stopped, as it should be, when the 
butter is no larger than grains of wheat or buckwheat, 
the buttermilk is drawn off and cold water is poured 
into the churn. The churn is moved back and forth a 
few times, and the milky water is drawn off ; more water 
is then used, and tliis is repeated until it is no longer 
colored by the buttermilk, and the butter is entirely free 
from it. There cannot be too much care given to this 
part of the work. This done,. the butter is removed to 
the butter-worker for salting and working. 

Butter is a compound substance consisting of fatty 
acids, combined with a base known as *^oil sugar" or 
glycerine, and forming neutral bodies known as marga- 
rine and oleine ; together with certain acids, called 
butyric, capric and caproic. It is a question, however, 
whether these acids really form a part of the butter orig- 
inally, or are not produced in it by decomposition of its 
fatty elements, aided by the too common imiDurities 
which exist in it. 

When butter, as it is taken from the churn, is melted 
in water of a temperature of something less than 180 
degrees, and is then washed repeatedly with warm water, 
oil is obtained which is nearly colorless, and when 
filtered is clear and transpnrent. When cooled this oil 
hardens into a hard whitish fat. By putting this fat into 



288 THE daikymak's manual. 

a linen wrapper and pressing it forcibly at a temperature 
of sixty degrees, a slightly yellow fluid oil is procured 
from it, while a solid, pure white fat remains in the 
cloth. This solid white fat is called margarine from its 
pearly appearance ; the fluid oil is called oleine, butter- 
oil, or oil of butter, and sometimes butyrine. 

These two fatty substances are themselves compound 
in character, for if treated with a hot solution of caustic 
potash they readily dissolve and form soap. When one 
of these soaps made from the margarine is dissolved in 
water and decomposed by the addition of diluted sul- 
phuric acid, a white w^axy substauce separates, and after 
having been dried and dissolved in hot alcohol, crystal- 
lizes on cooling into pearly scales. This substance has all 
the properties of an acid and is known as margaric acid. 

When the other (the oleine) soap is treated in a similar 
way an oily substance is. separated, differing from the 
butter oil and having all the properties of an acid. This 
substance is known as oleic acid of butter, because it has 
never been obtained from any other substance than the 
oil of butter. The liquid remaining after the separation 
of these acids contains a sweet, syrupy, oily substance 
which, when separated, is the glycerine so well known as 
the base of neutral oils and fats. 

The composition of butter varies considerably in regard 
to the proportion of these fatty bodies, margarine and 
oleine. In summer the proportions of these fats are 
about as follows: 

COMPOSITION OF SUMMER BUTTER. 

Margarine ---40 percent 

OleiSe... - - — --^ " 

100 

In winter this proportion is nearly reversed, as follows: 

COMPOSITION OF WINTER BUTTER. 

Margarine - 65 percent 

Oleine ....^. -_-35 " 

lOQ 



BUTTER. 289 

These compositions are by no means constant, but vary 
considerably, being affected by the individual animal, 
the breed, the food, and even by the management of the 
dairy. This latter is important, because it shows liow 
bad or injudicious work in the dairy may affect the qual- 
ity of the butter even in chemical composition, as will 
be shown more fully further on. 

Margarine is not only a prevailing constituent of 
butter, but it exists also in the fat of cattle and in olive 
oil, and in human fat to a very large extent. Butter 
is therefore a naturally excellent food for the human 
race, containing as- it does so large a proportion of one 
of the materials — margarine — of which the human frame 
is built up. This is white, hard, brittle, and its melting 
point is 118 degrees. When pure it is unchangeable; but 
when mixed wath the various substances which exist in 
butter — sugar, lactic acid, and caseine — it absorbs oxygen 
from the atmosphere and changes into oleine, or one of 
those odoriferous fatty acidswhich are present in ripened 
butter to a small extent, but in old butter to a larger 
extent, varying from one and a half to two per cent, and 
potentially to an even greater degree as the provocative 
impurities may be present. Just here might be men- 
tioned, once more, the very great importance of the 
preservation of the most perfect purity in every opera- 
tion of the dairy; because every impurity in milk, cream, 
butter, or cheese is an active ferment, producing either 
inherent or internal decomposition or oxidation, by 
which elements are changed in the most unexpected and 
surprising manner. Thus by the absorption of a few 
atoms of oxygen from the atmosphere margaric acid be- 
comes changed into oleic acid and water ; the quality of 
the. butter being materially altered for the worse> the 
firm, waxy texture being lost and a soft, oily, greasy 
character being assumed. And again, these solid and 
ffuid fats are also changed into the injurious acids which 



290 THE dairyman's manual. 

cause the disgusting rancidity which makes bad butter 
so obnoxious and totally unfit for use, and reduce it far 
below the so-called bogus butter which is the bugbear 
and enemy of the dairyman. 

The preservation of butter is effected not only by the] 
removal from it of these obnoxious elements, but also by., 
the addition of some antiseptic substances. Salt is most 
commonly used for this purpose, and this is quite suffi- 
cient for pure, well-made butter; but for the neutralizing 
of impure influences in poor butter, or for concealing the 
undesirable flavor of it, borax, saltpeter, and sugar are 
often used, with reasonably good results, considering the 
difficulty of the operation of reforming bad butter. 

Salting and packing butter for sale are two imjDortant 
parts of the business. Salt is a preservative of butter, 
notwithstanding the statement to the contrary made by 
persons who evidently do not understand tlie nature of 
salt and the action of antiseptics or the character of 
butter. 

Salting butter, however, is a nice operation, and re- 
quires a good deal of knowledge and care. The salt 
should be absolutely pure, and be ground as finely as 
possible. In our dairy, although using the finest Eng^ 
lish dairy salt, we groiwid it oyer again in a small hand 
biihr-stone mill, until it was an imj)alpable powder, and 
dissolved so quickly on the tongue as to leave no sense 
of grittiness to the teeth in less than a minute. The 
butter is salted at the rate of one ounce to the pound, 
as has been previously described, and after having stood 
twenty-four hours on the working table, during which 
time it gradually drains off the surplus water, it is 
worked over for packing. 

In • its granular condition it consists of a mass of 
rounded particles, with brine occupying the interstices, 
and the working consists of pressing the mass in thin 
sheets or slices so as to squeeze the grains close together 



BUTTER. 291 

and press oat the salt water. By carefully directing the 
pressure to merely squeeze the batter the rounded grains 
are pressed flat or lengthwise and intermingled with each 
other so as to give the butter, under the microscope, a 
fibrous appearance, much like that of lean meat, the 
fibers passing in and out among each other, and having 
a texture much like that of felt. It is this which gives 
the irregular, waxy fracture to well made butter and 
makes it solid and free from excessive moisture. To the 
eye no water appears in butter so made, but when it is 
newly cut minute drops of clear brine exude from the 
fresh surface. AYhen examined under a microscope of 
two hundred diameter power the moisture is seen in very 
small globules among the fibers, but no crystals of salt 
are detected. This moisture amounts to about ten or 
twelve per cent of the weight of the butter. As water 
holds in solution a large quantity of salt, the ounce of 
salt to the pound of butter which has been mixed absorbs 
all the water from the butter and makes it really dry ; 
the salt brine left after the working simply forming a 
superficial coating over the fibers and protecting them 
from the atmosphere and the consequent oxidation. The 
antiseptic effect of salt is due to this absorption of water 
from whatever substance it is brought into connection 
with. Water is the most acti\'e agent of decomposition 
and dry matter is indestructible by decay. It is quite a 
mistake to suppose that animal fats are free from water, 
and hence salt has no preservative influence upon them. 
These fats contain a large proportion of water, and salt 
abstracts the water from them and thus prevents de- 
composition. Clear mess pork is all fat, and 3^et it is 
preserved by salting, and so butter in the same way is 
preserved from rancidity, which is decomposition of the 
oleine or soft oily part of it, by this action of the salt, 
which is called antiseptic, or opposed to deca}^ 

Good butter is wholly spoiled by improper salting, 



292 THE DAIKYMA]S'S MANUAL. 

while butter that is not good may be improved and kept 
from getting worse by salting it carefully. The first 
requisite is good salt, and few dairy farmers are willing 
to get salt of the best quality, because of its slightly 
higher price. The next requisite is to mix the sale 
thoroughly with the butter. We give two illustrations 
which will show why these two requisites are indispen- 
sable to the making of good butter. At figure 53 is 




Fig. 53.— BUTTER PROPERLY SALTED. 

shown a sample of well-salted butter, as it appears 
under a microscope. At figure 54 is shown a sample 
in which salt of a poor quality has been used, and this 
has not been evenly mixed in the butter. In the first 
sample, the salt has been entirely dissolved ; not a single 
crystal remains visible, although the magnifying power 
used w^as equal to five hundred diameters. The com- 
plete solutioil of the salt, w^ith thorough mixture of the 
brine in the butter, and the very perfect working of it, 
give to the butter a firm, dry and waxy consistence, and an 
even quality and flavor. 

The other sample shows a large quantity of salt un- 
dissolved; the peculiar form of the salt crystals is readily 



BUTTER. 



293 



perceived. This unevenness injures the quality, and 
causes the butter to deteriorate very rapidly, because a 
large portion of it is not affected by the suit, which re- 
mains undissolved, and cannot exercise its desired anti- 
septic action. Moreover, the salt is impure, as is shown 
by the arrow-head crystals, which are evidently sulphate 
of liiiie, a common impurity in a poor quality of salt, 
which gives a bitter taste to the butter, and causes 
white spots to appear in it. The bitterness is probably 
caused by the formation of sulphate of soda (Glauber's 




Fig. 54.— BUTTER NOT PKOPERLT SALTED, " 

salt), and the white spots by chloride of calcium, both 
being produced by the reaction of the dissolved sulphate 
of lime, and the chloride of sodium (salt), in the butter. 
The white spots with a dark center are no ^doubt caused 
by the action of this chloride of calcium upon the butter; 
an evidence of this may be found by testing a little of 
the same with a small fragment of this substance. 

When the butter is freed from excess of moisture by 
this action of pressure above described (and this method 
is important to be observed), it is ready for packing and 
should be packed at once. Every minute's exposure to 



294 THE dairymak's manual. 

the air tends to injure the quality of the butter. If the 
butter is intended for immediate use it should neverthe- 
less be as carefully packed as if for a year's keeping. The 
fancy ways of putting up butter in cakes is not advisable 
unless they are immediately wrapped in paraffine paper, 
packed in a tight box and shipped at once. For family 
use we prefer a small pail holding five pounds, made 
of spruce or maj^le veneer, and supplied with a cover and 
a wire handle (figure 55, a). This is very convenient 
and cheap. The pails are coated inside with paraffine, 
which makes them air tight, and when closely packed 
with butter and pressed smoothly on the top a sheet of 
paraffine paper is carefully spread and turned over the 






Fig. 55.— J, VENEER PAIL,, "holding five pounds ; B, veneer box, 
holding five pounds ; C, welsh pail, holding twenty pounds. 

edge and the cover is put on over it. The pail is then 
wrapped in strong paper and tied with twine, a paste- 
board ticket with the address being tied to it. We have 
been in the habit of pasting a printed paper over the 
cover for the purpose of a business card and to further 
rrotect tbe butter from the air. Another very useful 
package is a five-pound box made of the same material. 
It is shown at b, in figure 55. For the regular trade we 
prefer the Welsh pail (c), holding twenty pounds, and 
made of spruce. This pail has a tight cover and costs 
less than a cent a pound for the butter in it. As this 
pail will generally sell the butter at considerably more 
than the usual price, it is easily afforded. All packages 
should be free. A returned bntter pail is not a sweet 



BFTTEE. ^95 

thing and should never be used, hence the advantage of 
such packages as may be given to the purchasers. 

In packing pails of this size some precautions are ad- 
visable. The pails should be soaked in salt water the 
night before they are used. When the butter is ready 
for packing the pail is rinsed out with boiling water, 
w^hich stands in it a minute or two, and then w^ith clear 
cold water ; after this the butter is packed at once. A 
small quantity is pressed down firmly in the bottom, and 
no more is put in at once than can be packed so closely 
as to exclude the air and squeeze out any moisture which 
may be in it. When the pail is full to the edge, a sheet of 
paraffine paper is pressed over it and the cover is put on 
and nailed down. Larger pails, tubs, or firkins are packed 
in the same way. If the packing is carefully performed 
the butter will improve in flavor by keeping. The slow, 
gradual ripening process of butter is akin to that which 
goes on in cheese or in wines and also in fruit. It is an 
intrinsic change of the elements by chemical decompo- 
sition and the formation of new compounds. New but- 
ter is no more perfect than is new cheese or new wine. 
Certain acids are produced in the butter by the slow de- 
composition of the oleine,.as they are in cheese by the 
slow decomposition of the caseine. The popular idea of 
decomposition is that it is decay, rottenness, and putrid- 
ity. To the chemist it is something entirely different. • 
The most delicious odors and flavors are produced by 
the decomposition of alcohol, and the flavoring extracts 
and many perfumes are thus produced. The ripening 
of fruits is a process of decomposition, and so is the 
ripening of butter and cheese, and the exquisite bouquet 
of the finest wines. But bad butter or bad cheese, and 
the vm ordinaire of the common kinds, do not contain 
the pure elements whidi produce fragrance and exquisite 
flavor, but their impurities 23roduce the most disagree- 
able results. Hence the dairyman who can turn out per- 



296 THE dairyman's manual. 

feet butter may pack it away for long keeping, in the 
sure expectation that it will go on improving for a con- 
siderable time, if he will only secure it safely against the 
influence of the germ-laden atmosphere. 

Other packages used are the half-^tub, holding about 
thirty pounds, a cheap and good package, but not tight 
enough for long keeping. It is made of wiiite oak, and the 
firm, solid cover is nailed down and held by three small 
pieces of tin or hoop iron over the edge. The return pail 
is a popular package among groceryman; it is made of 
white oak, and the best kinds are varnished on the outside. 
It holds fifty pounds. The cover fits closely, and is wedged 
down by means of a bar, which goes into the ears on the 
sides. Good butter, well packed in these tubs, will keep 
a year in perfect order, and if the butter is of the finest 
quality it will improve in flavor by ripening, when well 
packed in such a pail, and stored in a cold place. The 
one hundred pound firkin is used for the foreign trade. 
It is made very tight, well hooped, and of white oak, 
and butter packed in it can be kept for months in i^er- 
fect order. It is also pojDular in the home market for 
the retail trade. In packing these firkins it is advisable 
to bore a small hole in the head just before it is shipped 
and pour in as much clear, well skimmed brine as will 
fill any vacancies between the butter and the package. 
The hole is closed with a well fitting peg cut off flush 
with the surface. 

The vital importance of fine quality in butter cannot 
be dwelt upon too forcibly or reiterated too frequently. 
And when the simplicity of the methods required to 
secure this fine quality and their complete practicability 
are considered, it is amazing to know that really fine 
butter that will keep for a few weeks or months is so 
scarce an article. It is often thought that there is some 
secret process in it, and worthy persons who try and 
try, and yet fail to reach their ends, become discouraged 



BUTTER. 297 

because they have not learned the secret. Professor 
Sheldon, the English dairy expert, gives the following 
pertinent example : 

''Some years ago we knew a widow lady whose butter, 
especially with respect to flavor, was of a very superior 
kind ; we asked her what her secret was, for we had 
never tasted such butter at a farm house. ' I have no 
secret,' she said, ' beyond this. I am always very par- 
ticular about keeping thoroughly clean every vessel with 
which the milk and cream come in contact. I frequent- 
ly have them scalded with boiling water, scrubbed with a 
hard brush, and well rinsed in clear, cold water, and I 
am also careful to keep the milk-room clean and dry, and 
well supplied with fresh air. I am not aware that I have 
any secret beyond this ; in fact, there is no secret in the 
matter. ' " 

Many so-called ''experts" in dairying, but whose in- 
formation is gained from theories and not from practice, 
claim to know a secret or two. Some say brine salting 
is the secret; others, granular butter; others, again, say 
ripening of the cream is the one thing needful, while 
some interested persons will say that Jersey cows, or 
Holstein-Friesians, or Guernseys, must be kei3t, or there 
can be no fine butter made ; forgetting that brine salting 
and irranular butter ar^ not new by any means, but as 
old as our grandmothers, who "ripened" their cream 
too by simply keeping it until it became slightly acid 
(the modern ripening), and there was as good butter 
made by these excellent old ladies as by any modern 
dairyman, or professor or expert in the dairy art. 

The author can neier forget the excellent butter made 
by his mother fifty years ago — the sweetest, most'fragrant 
and well-flavored ever tasted — and can never dissociate 
it from her exquisitely neat and clean management ; the 
sleek clean Ayrshire cows ; the sweet green clover ; the 
old brick stable with smooth stone floor, so clean that 



^9S THE DAIRYMAN^S MANUAL. 

the mistress could go about in it with the dainty satin 
slippers of those days, and silk dress and lace cuffs, and 
pet her favorite cows ; the milk-house of stone into 
which a clear spring bubbled from its rocky course close 
by, cold and clear in the hottest day ; the long pool 
inside made of stone slabs, in which the bright red 
earthen milk jars stood, coyered with golden cream ; 
the cool clean brick floor, over which a stray sunbeam 
flickered as it escaped through the mass of ivy and roses 
which festooned the barred window, so made to exclude 
the cats and admit the cool night air, which came sweep- 
ing oyer the green meadows and the waving rustling 
trees ; and the long stone bench raised on brick piers, 
which held the tubs of butter, packed for sale in the 
fall, or the jars put down in golden June for the domestic 
winter supply, and the great bowl filled with the newly 
churned butter of which it was a grand luxury to steal 
some to eat with a fresh biscuit. All this, fixed like a 
photograph on the mind, made a dairyman of the author, 
and gave him the ambition to own at one time just such 
a dairy with such a cold spring, and such a solid struct- 
ure with so pure and sweet surroundings. For if there 
be a secret in making fine butter these comprise it. 

Cleanliness may be said to be entire absence of un- 
necessary and inappropriate matter. Dirt, as anything 
unclean is commonly termed, has been aptly described 
as any matter that is out of place, and there are a great 
many things connected with dairying which may be out 
of place. Some articles of food may be wrong ; sour 
food is unclean, for instance ; an excess of any kind of 
food ma}' also be considered in the same light, because it 
is essentially out of place in the cow's stomach, causing 
disturbance of the digestive organs, and consequent im- 
purity of the blood, and this injuriously affects the milk 
and necessarily the butter. 

Impure water and foul air are also essentially unclean, 



BUTTER. 399 

for they carry unclean and impure matter directly into 
the blood and irritate the very source of the milk. All 
these matters may very easily be ignored or neglected, as 
not appearing to be proximate elements in this matter of 
cleanliness, but the experience of every fine butter-maker, 
of every cheese-maker, and of every person who produces 
milk for sale, or who sells it, or who manufactures it in 
any way, all concurrently proves that these errors in the 
management of the cows are really most serious and have 
much to do with the very frequent poor quality of butter. 

Then we may consider what may be called the gross 
instances of uncleanliness, the avoidance of which con- 
stitutes one of the chief points in the successful manage- 
ment of the dairy. It can be hardly necessary to particu- 
larize these, for they are palpable to the commonest under- 
standing, and any dairyman who will milk a cow fouled 
with manure from a night's rest in dung and filthy litter, 
or with hands soiled by the coarser work of the stable, 
or who goes all unwashed from his own bed to the stable 
to milk, or who can quietly, and contentedly go on milk- 
ing while a filthy stream courses down into the milk pail, 
or who will dip his filthy fingers into the milk to wet the 
unclean teats that he may get a firmer hold upon them, 
or who never uses a brush or card upon his cows, such 
a man is totally destitute of that natural instinct of 
cleanliness without wiiich no teaching can influence his 
reason, any more than talking to a blind man can give 
him an idea of the beauties of a picture gallery. 

Lastly maybe mentioned the chemical changes in milk 
and oream, which are to be most carefully controlled.. 
Milk, as has been explained, is a most complex and un- 
stable fluid, and has within it all the elements and nat- 
ural proclivities for change and decomposition. It does 
net need to wait even for the omnipotent oxygen to 
exercise its action. It merely needs to break apart its 
atoms to produce within itself the acid which is at once 



300 THE DAIRYMAIirS MAKUAL. 

the servant, the master, and the bane of the dairyman. 
And the presence of this acid in excess is a thing out of 
place, iience an uncleanliness, an impurity, and destruc- 
tive of the good qualities of butter. The mere presence 
of the acid in milk or cream is enough ; one must not 
wait for its action. It is the same in regard to cheese. 
As the cream is ripe for the churn as soon as the acid 
becomes perceptible, so the curd is ready for the press 
when acid is apparent, and in either case its action is to 
be prevented by completing the final process at once and 
before it can produce decomposition in the cream or the 
curd. Every fine butter-maker will tell us to skim the 
cream before the milk is sour to the taste ; it then has a 
slight acid reaction and turns blue litmus paper red or 
reddish purple, and the cream is to be churned as soon 
as it is slightly acid. At a temperature of sixty degrees, 
in a pure atmosphere, milk exposed to the air will be 
precisely in the right condition for skimming, and at the 
same temperature and under the same circumstances 
the cream will be ready for the churn in twentj'-four 
hours ; or if the milk has been kept in the deep pails 
in w\T.ter of a temperature of fifty degrees or less and 
skimmed in twenty-four hours, when all the cream will 
have risen, the cream will require to stand thirty-six 
hours at a temperature of sixty degrees to acquire the 
right stage of acidity for the production of good butter. 
There is no secret in all this ; it is the alphabet, the 
rudimentary knowledge, in dairy business. 

The disposal of fine butter is an element in the profit 
of making it of no little importance. When one men- 
tions the fact that choice butter brings a much higher 
price than the regular market rates for that of an average 
good quality he is apt to be overwhelmed with requests 
for information as to where this good butter can be sold 
for high prices. This is a point upon which dairymen 
and farmers must exercise their own skill and discretion 



BUTTEB. 301 

as they may find means and opportunities. For special 
products special markets are to be found ; in the general 
market they go to make up an average, and the dealer gets 
whatever benefit may result from the better quality. Tf he 
finds some special purchaser for a few tubs at higher prices, 
than are usualj he considers the profit so made as justly 
■due to him for his trouble in seeking purchasers and 
handling the butter. To get the desired advantage from 
the better quality of the product the dairyman must be 
in direct communication with the consumer and avoid 
the charges incidental to the services of a middleman ; 
moreover, the butter must be put up in packages or 
small size suitable for domestic use, and must be delivered 
at regular periods without any failure, and constantly, 
through the year. This should be evident to persons 
who are desirous of going into this business, for a family 
using a certain quantity of butter weekly needs it on 
stated days, and any disappointment disturbs the whole 
domestic arrangements. This is apart of the price, and 
the trouble thus caused to th6 dairyman is an equivalent 
for the higher price received. 

The question is, llow can the maker of butter of first- 
rate quality, v/lio is able to supply families in the winter, 
chiefly, and in the summer except for the few weeks 
when these families are spending vacations in the coun- 
^try, bring his product to the notice of these consumers ? 

As in all similar cases, a work of probation is required 
to gain the requisite experience and success in catering 
to the wants of these persons. The dairyman, ambitious 
of a reputation, and desirous of the profit incident 
thereto, begins at home. In his nearest village he will 
find by inquiry some families who desire what he has to 
dispose of. He may supply these as far as he can, and 
in the meantime continue to sell his surplus by the reg- 
ular commission agent. But while doing this he may 
secure a very great advantage by advertising himself and 



302 THE dairyman's manual. 

his product. He may choose a pame for his dairy, and 
with a proper iron brand the bottom (inside) of his 
pails with his name and that of his dairy and his 
full address. In short, he should publish his business 
cards upon his packages in such a manner that the 
commission agent cannot obliterate it with his shaving 
tool. A dairyman who in the course of a few years built 
up a most profitable private trade began in this way. 
He made good butter and shipped it in fifty-pound pails 
to the New York market, where it brought the highest 
ordinary market price. He happened to have an applica- 
tion from a resident of the adjacent village for a casual sup- 
ply in an emergency, and in accordance with his constant 
custom did his best in accommodating the purchaser. 
This led to a yearly contract for a regular suj^ply 
at ten cents a pound above the highest price here- 
tofore obtained. A brand, with his name, was then 
burned into the inside bottom of every pail shipped, 
and the greatest care was used to pack the butter 
in the very best manner. Fine bleached cheese-cloth 
linings were used for the pails and for covering the 
butter. In a short time a letter was received from 
a city caterer who had bought a pail of the butter, 
asking for direct shipments, and a trade was thus 
opened which soon enlarged, and included eggs, poultry, 
spring chickens, home-made sausages, fruits, vegetables, 
and spring lambs. Some months this single customer 
took $200 worth of such produce from the farm. Then 
an advertisement in a city daily newspaper brought sev- 
eral private customers, who paid still higher prices for 
five-pound pails delivered weekly by express. In this 
way a trade was secured by which prices were gradually 
advanced until seventy-five cents a pound was readily se- 
cured for the butter and equally good prices for fresh 
eggs and poultry. 
It is by similar methods that the fancy prices, some 



BUTTER. 303 

equal to 11.00 and 11.25 a pound, have been procured 
for butter which was really no bstter than some put up 
in large packages and sold only at the top of the general 
market, or one-half or one-fourth as much. The differ- 
ence in the price paid was procured because of the good 
and even quality, the freshness, the certainty of supply, 
and the neat and attractive package, which contained 
enough for a week's use, and w^liich could be thrown away 
when used. All these conveniences are paid for without 
stint by a certain class of purchasers, and the only 
trouble is for the dairyman to find them and so secure 
his market. 

The use of some materials for the preservation of 
butter that is exposed to unusually adverse influences is 
often necessary. As fresh butter is a very perishable prod- 
uct, and to a large extent in both small and large dairies 
is required to be preserved in good condition for length- 
ened periods, the methods of preserving it are worthy of 
notice. At the outset it is necessary to utter a caution 
against all the so-called butter powders which are offered 
for sale and pressed upon public notice as agents for in- 
creasing the quantity of butter as ^vell as for preserving it. 
Some of these deserve to be called frauds, for they are 
not what they are set forth to be, and the stuff produced 
by them is not butter, but a mixture of butter and curd 
made by means of alum, saleratus and other similar sub- 
stances, with sufficient coloring matter to give it some 
appearance of butter. But it is not butter by any means, 
and can only be disposed of by false representations. As 
a matter of course, no person would make such stuff for 
his own use ; but many mighc be deceived by the delusive 
advertisements into purchasing and trying these butter 
powders, to their own disappointment and injury. As a 
general rule, all these mixtures by which the quantity of 
the butter is proposed to be increased may be considered 
as injurious, because the butter cannot be increased in 



304 THE dairyman's manual. 

any manner whatever, except by the addition of milk, 
curd, or water, and any one of these is hurtful to the 
butter, and to the extent that the additional weight and 
bulk are not butter it is a deceit and a fraud. 

The quantity of salt used is from one-half to a 
whole ounce for a pound of butter. Tlie quantity is 
varied as the butter may require to be kept for some 
time or is intended for immediate use. In the latter 
case half an ounce to the pound is sufficient ; when the 
butter is to be kept two or three months three-quarters 
of an ounce should be used, and for the longest period 
a full ounce will be required. It depends very much 
upon the way in which the butter is made. If Ave take 
the butter as it comes from the- churuj^s described at the 
opening of this chapter, in the form of small grains and 
quite free from buttermilk, and drained from all surplus 
water by remaining in the churn for two hours, half an 
ounce of salt is enough. This is sprinkled evenly 
over the butter, which is then gathered with the ladle or 
worked with the butter-worker so as to incorporate the 
salt thoroughly with the butter. The water in the but- 
ter immediately dissolves this salt. For the complete 
solution of salt about three or four times its weight of. 
water is required. If half an ounce of salt is completely 
dissolved in a pound of butter, there will be at least two 
ounces of brine in it, which is equal to about ten per cent 
of moisture, which is considerably lesi^ than the average. 
Hence it is seen that there must be nearly twenty per cent 
of water in butter to dissolve one ounce of salt and com- 
pletely avoid the presence of salt crj^stals in it. But 
when this amount of moisture exists in the butter a large 
part of it will be worked out after the salt has been 
dissolved. In the majority of cases, perhaps, butter of 
the ordinary character salted at the rate of one ounce to 
the pound will lose nearly one-half of it by drainage, and 
if the butter — as is exceedingly probable — contains some 



BUTTER. 305 

remaining buttermilk m it, this full allowance of salt 
will be required for its preservation from early rancidity. 
In short, the salting of butter must be done judiciously, 
and with a knowledge and consideration of the principles 
involved in it, as heretofore explained in the full and 
careful statement made of the character and behavior of 
the milk and the cream, and the action of the chemical 
agents to which they are exposed upon them. 

Saltpeter, sugar, borax, and some preparations of borax 
have been and are used in packing butter. Saltpeter and 
sugar are both antiseptics and add an agreeable flavor to 
butter. On this account they are used with salt to re- 
pack butter that has been badly packed at first, or to mix 
with inferior and poorly made butter as a means of dis- 
guising its bad qualities. They are really for the use of 
the incompetent dairyman or for the professional packer 
of " store butter," who gathers from all sources butter 
of all qualities of badness and repacks it for sale. For 
this purpose, one part of saltpeter and one part of 
white sugar finely powdered are added to four parts 
of salt, and an ounce and a quarter of the mixture 
is used with each pound of butter previously well 
washed with pure water. 

The use of borax in dairying is somewhat new. There 
is no doubt that this salt — borate of soda, which is a 
combination of 36.58 percent of boracic acid, with 16.25 
per cent of soda, and 47.17 per cent of water — is an ex- 
cellent antiseptic ; but its effect upon the human system 
is said to be injurious. Some experiments have been 
made in Europe with borax as a butter preservative with 
no positive ill results ; and it seems that its suspected 
disadvantages may, after all, be more fancied than real. 
It has been used as a substitute for salt in the usual 
quantity, viz., about six per cent, having first been freed 
from the water of crystallization by heating it on an iron 
plate and then reducing it to a fine powder. 



306 THE dairyman's manual. 

Several other butter preservatives are in the market 
and are offered to dairymen. Of these one known as 
glacialine is a powder, the base of which is probably 
borax. Another is a liquid used by the Aylesbury Dairy 
Company of England m their business, and is said to 
be an excellent substitute for salt. It is believed 
to be a preparation of phosphoric acid. A trial with 
this preparation has so far been satisfactory, a pail 
of butter packed with it being in unusually good condi- 
tion after five months, and the butter having no objec- 
tionable qualities. Certainly, the butter seems to keep 
better than with salt under the same circumstances. 
One liquid ounce of the preparation is used for sixteen 
pounds of butter along with one-fourth of the usual 
quantity of salt. The liquid is first thoroughly well in- 
corporated with the butter spread out upon a slab or the 
bowl and roughly indented with the ladle, the indenta- 
tions being then closed over carefully to prevent escape 
of the liquid, and salt at the rate of one ounce to four 
pounds being then added and the whole well mixed. 
Butter so prepared is said to keep perfectly well even 
when exposed to the air. 

A most effective method of preserving butter is by 
cold storage. Few dairies have facilities for the safe 
keeping of butter during the summer. This requires a 
low, steady temperature and a moist atmosphere, but 
more particularly an air-tight package. Those who 
make a business of storing butter at this season, when 
prices are low, and sales are not nearly equal to the pro- 
duction, make use of ice-houses or refrigerators, in 
which the butter may be kept at a low and even temper- 
ature, varying from thirty-eight to forty-five degrees. 
In the hands of any but an expert, cold storage with ice 
is dangerous, because if the temperature varies, damage 
is done immediately; for the effect of a low temperature 
is to so change the molecular arrangement of the parti- 



BUTTER. 307 

cles of perishable substances as to hasten their disorgan- 
ization and decomposition on the occurrence of a higher 
temperature. And once this higher temperature occurs, 
the mischief is done, and cannot wholly be arrested by 
restoring the former conditions. So that unless one is well 
provided for maintaining a steady degree of low temper- 
ature, it is better to avoid the use of ice altogether, and 
trust solely to a deep, closed cellar, used only for this 
storage. June butter is better adapted for long keeping 
than that made at any other season, for its quality is of 
the best, and its texture is firm and solid, and if it is 
well packed in air-tight tubs, pails, or firkins, it may be 
very well kept at the ordinary temperature of a fairly 
good cellar or well-constructed spring-house. The pack- 
ing, however, has much to do with the preservation of 
the butter, for the air must be excluded so that its de- 
composing effect is avoided and the evaporation of the 
moisture in the butter is prevented. When the butter is 
packed, the top may be covered with a sheet of paraffine 
paper, and if the whole inside of the tub or firkin were 
covered with it the air might be better excluded. The 
butter should not come within a quarter of an inch of 
the top edge of the package, and this space should be 
filled with a mush of wet salt plastered evenly over it 
and level with the edge. This will dry in a solid cake, 
and if covered with paraflSne paper would be still more re- 
sistant to the atmosphere. Packages so prepared may 
be safely kept in a good cellar. But it would be prefer- 
able to prepare a cellar specially for this use. An excel- 
lent one for this purpose will be a two-story cellar — so to 
speak — or one that has a sub-cellar under it. These are 
common in the Southern States, but are seldom seen in 
the North, where, however, they would be equally useful, 
for Our summers attain as high a temperature sometimes 
as those in the South. Tliese cellars are made about 
twelve to fifteen feet deep, are lined with brick or stone, 



308 THE dairyman's ma:n'ual. 

and are provided with a winding stair around the sides, 
and a floor eight feet from the bottom. In the center of 
this floor there is a square opening covered with a sash 
similar to a skylight; at one side is a trap-door leading 
to the stairs. The lining should be cleanly whitewashed, 
which reflects the. light and makes the cellar bright, 
clean, and fresh-looking. A raised bench of brick or 
stone work, at least eighteen inches high, should be built 
around the cellar, upon wdiich the butter is ranged, as 
this precludes all danger of earthly contamination when so 
raised. The ujDper part of the building is raised about 
four feet above the surface and covered with a broad 
roof. The wall above ground should be double, with a 
foot of air space between the two, and the door should 
be protected with a porch. A window on the north side 
only will be sufficient for light. The upper part may be 
used for a dairy-room, but nothing should be done or 
permitted in it that could in any way cause impurities to 
collect in the cellar below. The temperature in a cellar 
of this kind may be kept at fifty-five degrees through the 
summer, if it is opened in the winter time so that the 
walls may be made cold. Any excess of dampness may 
be reduced by the occasional exposure of a basket of 
fresh lime in the cellar. A peck of lime weighing 
twenty pounds will absorb three quarts of water without 
becoming moist, and this dry-slaked lime will always be 
found useful, so that there will be no waste. The re- 
lease of this moisture from the walls and floor of the 
cellar will lower the temperature, and, with the water, the 
lime will absorb any injurious or odorous matter dissolved 
or taken up by it. A cellar twelve feet square will be suffi- 
ciently large to store the butter, and also to set the milk, 
if that is desired. There will be no harm in this to the 
butter, if the milk is not spilled about or suffered to be- 
x3ome very sour in it. A \v ell-kept milk-cellar should 
have nothing in it that could injure butter that might 



CREAMERIES. 309 

be kept there^ and the cellar could be used very well for 
both purposes. A plan of this kind would be preferable 
to the use of ice, and would be cheaper in the end. The 
use of ice for the cold storage of butter and for the cool- 
ing of dairies will be treated of fully in a future chapter. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
CREAMERIES. 

The creamery is a co-operative dairy, in which the 
labor is done by one person, either hired by the owners 
of the farms which supply the milk, or by the owner of 
the creamery. Usually they are of two kinds : private 
business establishments which purchase cream at a stated 
price from the patrons, or joint stock concerns in which 
the capital is procured by , the sale of shares, the share- 
holders being any persons who may desire to invest 
money in such an enterprise. A creamery is of the 
greatest advantage in any community where a sufficient 
number of cows are kept within convenient distance for 
gathering the cream, as a large number of families are 
relieved of the care and labor of making butter, by sell- 
ing the cream ; the butter made is of far better quality, 
being made under the best conditions by one person who 
is an expert, and it is also all alike, which is important 
in marketing the produce. 

The following description of a very successful creamery 
in Connecticut may be given as a type of what a cream- 
ery should be, how it is managed, what it costs, and the 
results gained. It is a joint-stock concern, having a capi- 
tal of 13,500, divided into 140 shares of $25 each, and 
no shareholder can hold more than eight shares. The 



310 



THE DAIRTMAK's .MANUAL. 



stock is held mostly by the patrons, the remainder being 
owned by residents of the village in which it is situated. 
The building (figure 56) is situated on a hillside, and 
has a road entirely around it, which is found a great 
convenience in doing business. The cream is thus de- 
livered on the upper floor (figure 58) and is poured 
through the cream-receiver in the vats on the lower floor. 
There is an ice-w^ater tank on this floor, which is supplied 
from a spring several feet above its level and a short dis- 
tance away from the building. This tank supplies the. 
cold water "used in the cream vats for preserving it sweet 




Fig. 56.— THE WALKILL CREAMERY. 

in the hot weather, and keeping the temperature even 
during all the sudden and violent changes of it in the 
summer season, and, in fact, during the whole year, for 
a too low temperature in the winter is quite as disastrous 
as a too high elevation of it in the summer. 

The cream-room below is reached by a staircase. This 
room is on the ground floor or basement. The addition 
at one end (figure 57) contains the engine and boiler, the 
coal bins and the office. The work-room contains two 
large churns, the butter-worker, and a drain for carrying 
away the buttermilk. The cream is drawn off from the 
vats by means of pipes, as shown, the vats being elevated 



CREAMEBlES. 



311 



above the churns sufficiently for this purpose. The cream- 
room is furnished with three cream vats, and pipes from 
the receiver above carry the cream into the vats. Every- 
thing of this kind is done through pipes ; the water and 
steam for cleansing the utensils and floors are brought in 



5gft. 



IStf. 



MFfUQCRA -Oil 



CREAM ROOM 



c 



PmTfOBW ^f^ 



mnm 



WANUFACruRINa 




M 



bOM. 



OFFICe 



Fig. 57.— PLAN OF GROUND FLOOR. 

this way, and thus labor is saved in every possible man- 
ner. The buttermilk is run into a large cistern below 
the creamery, and at a sufficient distance from it to avoid 
any disagreeable odor, and it is pumped from this cistern 
into barrels for those farmers who may wish to purchase 
it, at one cent a gallon, for feeding hogs. The butter- 
room is used for storing the butter, and is furnished 




Fig. 58. — PLAN OF UPPER FLOOR. 

with a large refrigerating closet for cooling it in warm 
weather. There is the only fault in the arrangement of 
this creamery — which is the distance of the butter-room 
from the churn. This, of course, requires the labor of 



312 THE DAiKYMAN^S MAI^UAL!^ 

moving the butter quite a distance to the store-room, 
when the store and packing-room should adjoin the 
churuing-room. The arrangement, however, was go 
made on account of the ice-house being next to it, and 
because of the nature of the ground preventing an addi- 
tion to the main building in the rear, where, otherwise, 
the ice-house and butter -room should rightly be placed. 
The ice-house is at the end of the butter-room. This is 
a building eighteen by twenty feet and twelve feet high, 
finished in a neat and complete manner at a cost of $180, 
and holds sixty-five tons. The creek which flows past the 
creamery has been dammed, and forms a pond in which ice 
is cut. Just here might be said a word or two in regard 
to the supi% of ice in Southern creameries. It is by no 
means necessary that ice should be a foot thick to be fit 
for cutting and storing for summer use. If it is one inch 
thick it may be taken up then as well as at any other 
time, for ice has a peculiar property called regelation, 
by which it adheres and freezes together in a solid mass 
when thin sheets of it are placed in contact. Thus, if 
thin ice is stored during freezing weather, it is equally 
safe as if it was put away a foot thick, and it is rare that 
ice of two or three inches thick could not be procured in 
any locality where dairying may be carried on satisfac- 
torily. The ice-house for a creamery in the South should 
be larger than one in the North, because of the longer 
warm Southern summer ; but, on the other hand, the 
most of the Southern dairying would naturally be done in 
the winter, when good grazing is possible for the greater 
part or the whole of it, when the right arrangements are 
made, and thus the ice question is reduced to a very 
easy solution. Yet, it would be wise to have a large ice- 
house, and to have it divided into two compartments, one 
to be reserved until the other is exhausted. 

The cost of such a building as is here described, con- 
structed in the very latest manner, is about $1,700, in- 



CREAMERIES. 313 

elusive of land; water privileges, drains, and the furniture 
all included would take 11,200 to $1,300 more. The 
main building is forty-five feet long and twenty-five feet 
wide ; the addition is twenty-five feet long and seventeen 
feet wide. The basement is brick, with walls twelve 
inches thick and eleven feet high ; the upper part is of 
frame, and eight feet high to the plates. In most local- 
ities in the South, and many places in the North and 
West, the building may be put up for much less money. 
In the Southern States a very good and useful building 
of this size may be finished for $1,000, and furnished for 
$1,200 more. The cost of the furniture, of course, de- 
pends upon its completeness and kind, and the above 
estimate includes the very best and most improved and 
effective apparatus. This creamery uses the cream of 
400 cows, and 2,000 to 2,500 pounds of butter are made 
weekly, according to the season. This is quite as large 
a product as is consistent with the most profit. It is 
one of the interesting facts in regard to creameries, that 
the butter sells for fully one-^third more than can be pro- 
cured for that made in small dairies, which gives the 
patrons a great advantage in addition to the saving of 
labor. The work done in this creamery in 1886 was as 
follows: 

Butter made, pounds 83,147 

Total sales $ 27,125 

Paid to farmers 23,158 

Expenses 4,074 

Cost of making a pound of butter 41/2 cts 

EXPENSES. 

Wages of butter makers $1,075 00 

Gathering cream 1,878 35 

Delivering butter to marlcet -.. 1,045 00 

Insurance, taxes, and pasturage 254 36 

Coalandsalt 183 45 

Management and small expenses - 642 84 

The system of gathering the cream is as follows : Every 
patron uses the Cooley or submerged system milk pails, 
each holding eighteen quarts of milk. These are kept 



314 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 

in vats of ice water at a low temperature ; so that when 
distant from the creamery the cream need not be gath- 
ered more than two or three times a week. These cans 
have a glass window in the upper part through which 
the cream can be seen as it separates from the milk. 
This glass strip is marked into spaces of nhieteen-sixty- 
fourths of an inch each, and the spaces are taken as the 
standard measurement of the cream. Th^ eighteen- 
quart can of milk gives from eight to seventeen spaces 
of cream, as the quality of the cows vary. Good cows 
giving^ more than poor ones, the owner gets more money 
from the milk, and thus the injustice of selling milk of 
poor co^vs for the same price per quart as that of good 
cows is done away with, and every farmer is paid pre- 
cisely what his milk is actually worth. About six to 
seven spaces of cream yield a pound of butter, varying 
from six and a half to seven and a half, as the feeding 
differs through the summer. As the price paid is 3.83 
cents per space, the average twelve spaces will pay nearly 
forty-six cents per eighteen-quart can of milk, from 
which two pounds of butter is made, yielding nearly 
twenty-three cents a pound for the butter without any 
labor or cost of making it. In this creamery the 400 
cows produced an average of 207.60 pounds per cow net, 
and free from labor and cost, except for milking and 
caring for the milk. 

There are several other kinds of cans used for raising 
cream, but all are. of the same character: viz., they are 
deep and are set in ice water, and have a standard gauge 
for measuring cream. Most of these gauges are marked 
with inches, and one inch is taken for one pound of 
butter. But as all patrons of any creamery use the same 
kind of milk-cans for setting for cream, every one stands 
on exactly the same footing in this respect, and gets the 
same value for the cream. 

The advantage of keeping only good cows and of feed- 



CREAMERIES. 315 

ing them well is apparent. The milk is drawn by a 
faucet from the bottom of the can, leaving the cream, 
which is then drawn off into the cream-gatherer's pails. 
The quantity of cream is noted and a ticket is given for 
it, and these tickets are paid for at the end of every 
month in cash when presented at the office of the 
creamery. In co-operative creameries a certain price is 
fixed for the season, in accordance with the price of but- 
ter, and leaving a small fund in hand, which is divided 
at the end of the season ; or the price of the cream is 
raised from time to time, as can be afi'orded. In private 
creameries the cream is bought and paid for at a fixed 
rate as the butter market may afford. 

The creamery system is of general application, and may 
be made available both for the associated dairies, and for 
large single dairies. Its greatest and most effective de- 
velopment, however, is through association, by which a 
large number of farmers and small dairymen may enjoy 
all its benefits. There are creameries which work up the 
product of several hundred cows and are patronized by 
fifty or more farmers. Deep setting requires much less 
space than shallow setting, and this economy of space 
lessens the necessary amount of floor room in the cream- 
ery, which, of course, reduces the cost of the building. 
The cost of the necessary apparatus for a 600-cow 
creamery, with cheese-making furniture complete, in- 
cluding a six- horse power steam engine and an eight- 
horse power boiler, amounts to about 11,500. The cost 
of a small creamery for butter alone for eighty to one 
hundred cows would be little more than $350, includ- 
ing the building, if the deep pails be used, and strict 
economy be exercised. 

Such a creamery as this, arranged on a low basis of 
cost, may be constructed as follows : — A frame building 
with double walls, the studs being six inches wide and 
covered under the boarding with air-tight roofing paper. 



316 THE DAIRYMAN^S MANUAL. 

The outside is of novelty siding which lies close upon 
the studding; the inside is sheeted with narrow, matched 
stuff. This gives a sufficient and perfect air-space which 
equalizes the temperature. The main building is thir- 
teen by twenty-one feet outside, has two windows, and 
one outside door. The annex is nine by nine feet out- 
side and has an arched passageway, but no door ; in this 
is a water heater, and a sink provided with a pump ; a 
window over the sink lights this wash-room. The main 
room contains a pool, six by twelve feet, which holds 120 
eight-inch fourteen-quart or thirty-pound pails, twenty 
inches deep. This will be sufficient for nearly 100 cows, 
and it is best to have the pool of ample size rather than 
barely large enough. The pool or vat should be built 
up of cream-colored brick laid in cement, and, if not 
wholly sunk in the floor, should be inclosed in a pine- 
plank frame strengthened with two three-quarter-inch 
galvanized iron rods passing from side to side and held 
by washers and nuts on the outside of the frame, A 
raised vat will be found more convenient than one sunk 
in the floor, as stooping will be avoided. A one-horse 
power is placed under a shed, with the driving pulley 
brought into the building ; a belt from this works the 
churn. The butter-worker may be kept in the wash- 
room. The whole floor should be of matched pine with 
the joints calked and the boards well painted; the floor 
should incline one inch from the sides to the center, 
where a wide groove or narrow gutter should lead the 
drainage to a pipe under the sink where it escapes into 
the trapjDed drain. A pump to supply water to the vat, 
if needed, may be set near the vat and worked by a belt 
from the horse power. Both the pumps may be con- 
nected with one well near the house, if running water is 
not available. This plan may be adapted to small private 
dairies, and the smallest dairy may be arranged in a 
similar manner. A hanging rack above the vat may be 



CREAMEEIES. 



317 



provided to hold the spare pails and utensils that are not 
in use, so that the space occupied by the vat will not be 
lost. A ventilator should be made in the roof and the 
building should have half a story above the main floor to 
aid in the ventilation. An extra pump should be located 
in some convenient place. 

For a large creamery the following plan and specifica- 
tions, given by a leading creamery furnisher, will be 



fSEHUUSS 



COLD, fiooy 



COLO ROOK 



I 



K 



PLATFORM 




Fig. 59.— PLAN OF CREAMERT. 



found useful (figure 59). The main creamery build- 
ing is 20 X 40 feet ; ice-house 20 x 30 feet ; boiler-room 
16 X 18 feet ; divided as follows : Main part divided into 
five rooms. Eeceiving room 9x20, slanting floor and 
drain, Can be used for receiving and straining the 



318 THE dairyma:5^'s mai^ual. 

cream, washing cans, etc. Floor elevated four feet above 
sills. Cream room 12 x 20 feet, with slant floor draining 
on the churn floor, floor elevated two feet ahove sills; used- 
as a cream-tempering room. Churn room 9x20 feet, 
floor on level with sills, slanting towards cream room, 
with drain at the junction with elevated floor of cream 
room. Butter room 10 x 10 feet, slant floor, drain con- 
nects with main drain in churn room. Cold room No. 
1, 10 X 10 feet, used for storage for salt, tubs, butter, 
etc. Cold storage room No. 2, for storing butter, is 
10 X 10 feet, built in the ice-house and covered with gal- 
vanized iron, and is surrounded with ice. 

The creamery is built as follows : Joist for elevated 
floor, 2x8, spiked to studs supported in center with 
4x6 timbers, shored up on. pillars. Ends shored up 
with 2x4 studs ; outside walls 2x4 studding, 12 feet 
long. On outside of studs nail rough inch boards ; paper 
with building paper, f nr on it with inch strips ; side 
with drop siding, or stock-boards stripped ; on inside of 
studs, rough board, paper, fur out with inch strips and 
ceil with fence flooring, ceiling overhead with fence floor- 
ing ; floor laid \yith clear flooring ; partitions ceiled on 
studs set flat ways, on both sides, leaving two-inch air 
space. Cream and churn rooms can be in one, or par- 
titioned, as desired. 

The above-described creamery has capacity sufficient 
to manufacture from 700 to 1,200 pounds of butter a 
day. To enlarge its capacity add to the width of main 
building. The raised floors are constructed for conven- 
ience in handling cream. Cream taken into receiving 
room, strained and carried into vats through conductor 
pipes ; also from vats to churns, through conductor 
pipe, saving all lifting of cream in cans, rendering it 
possible for one man to do one-half more work than in a 
creamery without raised floors. An office can be taken 
oS of wash-room if desired. 



CREAMERIES. 319 

The following list of apparatus is suitable for this size 
creamery : 

1 6 H. P. Engine with Vertical Boiler all complete $ 315.00 

3 300 gallon Steam Vats @ $-40.00.. - 120.00 

2250 " Creamery Churns @ 85.00 -- 70.00 

1 Power Butter Worker.. 50.00 

1 Covered Crank Suction and Force Pump 25.00 

1 240tt> Union Family Scale 6.00 

1 Butter Saltmg Scale - 5.00 

2Butter Ladles@25 - 50 

2 14-quai't Iron Clad Milk Pails @ 1.00 2.00 

16 feet I'U Main Shafting @ 55 8.88 

6 " Counter " I'lie 55 @... 3.30 

6 1^1,8 Drop Hangers® 3.50 21.00 

1 Pulley 24x5xl-|ia--.- 6.76 

1 " 16x5xl'|i6 --- 4.40 

2 " 12x 8x P|, 6 flat face @ 4.60 - 9.20 

2 " 12x 5 X 1^,6 round face® 3.50 7.00 

1 " 6x6xP|i6flat 2.80 

400 Comraon Sense Cream Setting Pails 300.00 • 

12 30-gallon Jacketed Cream Carrying. Cans 126. 00 

$1,082.75 

The following will be found a complete bill of material 
for this creamery as shown in the plan (figure 65). 

, MATERIAL FOR MAIN BUILDING. 

For Sills 6 pieces 6 x 8, 20 ft. long 
" u 2 " " 20 " 
" Lower Joist, 32 pieces 2 x 8, 20 ft. long. 
^^ For Upper Joist, 32 pieces 2 x 6, 20 ft. long. 

' For Rafters, 42 pieces 2 x 6, 14 ft. long. 

" Studding, 109 pieces 3 x 4, 14 ft. long. 
For Flooring 1,000 ft. 
" Siding 1,900 ft. 
" Casing and Cornice 1,200 ft. 
" Sheathing, 4,100 ft. 
For CeUiug 4,800 ft. 
" Strips 1 x2 in., 900. 
" Paper 2,000 square ft. 
" Shingles 10,000. 

MATERIAL FOR ICE-HOUSE. 

For Sills 2 pieces 6 x 8, 30 ft. long. 

<< a 2 " " 20 " 

" Rafters 32 pieces 2 x 6, 14 ft. long. 
" Studding 62 pieces 2 x 6, 12 ft. long. 



320 THE dairyman's manual. 

For Sheathing and Roof Boards, 2,300 ft 

For Siding 1,750 ft. 

For Cornice and Casing 300 ft. 

" Strips 1 X 2 in., 300 ft. 

" Shingles 9,000. 

" Paper 1,400 square ft. 

MATERIAL FOR BOILER-ROOM. 

For Sills 2 pieces 6 x 8, 18 ft. long. 

i( " 2 • '' " 16 " 

♦* Studs 40 2x4 12 ft. long. 

" Rafters 14 2 x 4, 18 ft. long. 

" Sheathing 1,000 ft. CeiUng Joist 2 x 4, 16 ft. long. 
For Siding 800 ft. 
For Shingles 3,000. 
12 10 X 16 12-light windows. 
One Keg of 6 d Nails. 

<C (< g << 

« u 10 " 

« u 20 " 
751). of 4 d " 

Labor equivalent to four men's work for 25 days. 

The lumber bill includes material for window casings 
and doors. It will take about five and a half rolls of 
sheathing paper, costing about $5.50 total. The cost 
of the lumber, including shingles, may be estimated at 
$512.25. Thus it will be seen that the total cost of the 
creamery, according to the plans and specifications here 
given, is as follows, viz: 

Cost of lumber, including shingles $ 512.25 

Windows glazed. - 27.72 

Sheathing paper.. 5.50 

Nails 14.25 

Labor, 100 days at $2.50 a day 250.00 

Cost of machinery and outfit 1,082.85 

Total cost -- $1,892.57 

The method of gathering the cream from the patrons 
and valuing it, has been fully explained in a previous 
chapter and needs no reference here. The manage- 
ment of a combined creamery and cheese factory for the 
utilization of the whole milk will be described in a future 
chapter. 



CREAMEEIES. 321 

Before closing this chapter, the following directions, 
given by Mr. John Gould, of Ohio, a well-known dairy 
expert, for the information of persons about to embark 
in the creamery and factory business, may be read with 
much benefit. The information given relates more par- 
ticularly to Ohio and the Western States. 

*'A suitable building will cost $300 to 1600, according 
to construction, and the machinery" as much more. It 
is always better to get estimates from reliable houses 
in the dairy furnishing business. Don't fall into the 
hands of the ^ creamery sharks ' who rope in the farmers 
only to wreck the business and make 15,000 by the 
operation. Deal only with the best houses and firms. 

'^ A creamery can afford to pay what cream is worth, 
not what inferior store butter will bring. An inch of 
cream in the common deep pails represents a pound 
of the finest creamery butter, worth in the market three 
or four times that of poor, white store butter. Cream 
should be purchased on the basis of what fine butter 
brings in New York. Find out by correspondence what 
it will cost to collect the cream, make and market the 
butter ; add a reasonable sum for your investment, and 
give the rest to your patrons. Cream slioald be bought 
about five cents below New York butter prices. 

^' Butter and cheese can be made with well water if it 
can be had in abundance. A butter-room j^apered on 
both sides of double walls will be all right if a shallow 
tank of running water is kept in it. Ship the butter as 
fast as made. The market has got through paying fancy 
prices for 'storage' butter. A. room to keep butter in 
is not needed. Don't set up a summer butter factory. 
The market now has threefold too much butter in the 
summer and not enough in v/inter. This makes high 
prices in winter and low prices in summer. It costs no 
more to winter a cow that gives thirty pounds of butter 
per month than to winter a dry cow, if one goes at it 



322 THE dairymaid's manual. 

right. The produce of the winter milker brings two and 
a half times as much as that of the summer cow. 

*^ The drainage should be good. Large sewer pipes 
are good if you have water enough to flush them. 

** A cellar is not objectionable under a factory. The 
trouble is to get floors that are water tight ; if they are^ 
not tight the cellar is bad business. 

^^ On the Western (Ohio) Reserve, as a rule, the milk 
is all made into cheese. In a less dense dairy district it 
might be better to sell the cream to a factory and feed 
the milk on the farm ; that is, if fed sweet, and with grain. 
If it is allowed to sour there is little profit in feeding it. 

'^ Factories pay a sliding scale of prices for milk, 
governed largely by the price of cheese in l^ew York. 
Last year the price of all new milk ranged from 80 cents 
to $1.20 per 100 pounds, from spring to fall. During 
the five winter months it was about $1.35. In summer 
the farmer delivers twice a day; in winter, once, but no 
cream is taken off. 

'* The profit of the different kinds of cheese depends 
upon the kind made. The best quality of American 
cheese sells better than Switzer or any other imitation of 
the foreign kinds, unless they are of first rate quality. 

*'If the milk or cream is sold, the buyer owns the 
buttermilk. At the cheese factory the buttermilk is 
very apt to find its way into the cheese vats, especially* 
since sweet cream butter is demanded by the market. At 
a patron factory it would be run into the whey vats, and 
any patron who would be foolish enough to want to haul 
home some whey swill, would get his share. 

*^It takes all the way from nine to eleven pounds of 
milk, and often more, to make a pound of cheese, ac- 
cording to the season, early or late, and the amount of 
butter that has first been taken from the milk. A hun- 
dred pounds of skim milk is i^ich in cheese, but poor in 
quality. 



CKEAMERIES. 323 

'^ The quantity of milk for a pound of butter depends 
altogether upon the cows and their feed. Butter cows 
would do it with from fourteen to eighteen pounds of 
milk. ^^ General purpose cows " want from twenty-two 
to thirty-one pounds, and some cows would require fifty 
pounds of milk to make a pound of butter. Average 
dairies require somewhere about twenty-five pounds of 
milk to make a pound of butter. 

'^ Patron are paid at the factories usually, once per 
month, in checks on the nearest bank. Usually this is 
about the fifteenth of the month. April milk or cream 
will be paid for on May 15. Patron factories usually pro 
rata their sales whenever made. 

*'A practical butter maker usually receives about $50 
to 160 per month, and board. A good man is worth 
$200 per month over a poor one. A poor one should not 
be tolerated. The best man is always the cheapest. 
Good butter and cheese makers are often combined in 
the same man. 

^^ Cream collectors are usually paid by the day or 
month. The collector usually furnishes his own team, 
and working by the day is the best plan. 

'' The per cent profit that could reasonably be ex- 
pected on the investment of, say an 800-cow creamery 
would be difficult to decide. It is a purely business ven- 
ture, and is governed exactly like any other speculation. 
You must first know your business or you will get left. 
You must fix prices so that you can stand a big drop in 
butter in August, and if it drops lower than that, out 
drops your profit and some more money with it. It 
w^ould be a good thing to study the market reports for 
the past five years, and get some value out of *dry 
figures.' You are as liable to 'get left' on your inch 
of cream as a basis of a pound of butter as upon any- 
thing. You are apt to find afterwards that it only 
churns out about twelve ounces of butter. There can 



324 THE dairyman's manual. 

only be one way to buy cream safely, and that is by the 
oil test—i^aj for the butter fats in it as demonstrated 
by hot water. Then you are not paying for a thing you 
do not get, nor is another man selling more butter fats 
than he gets credit for. If there are twenty ounces of 
butter fat in his inch of cream, he gets paid for it, and 
justice is done all around. And the cream buyer is safe 
in this, that the estimates of the oil test are verified 
by the final churn test. It makes the farmer ' squirm ' 
who finds it takes thirty-five pounds of milk from his 
dairy to make a pound of butter, and is credited with 
this amount, and another farmer gets credit for a pound 
for every twenty pounds of milk." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
ICE-HOUSES. 

A LIBERAL supply of icc is indispensable for a dairy 
which is operated in the summer. A winter dairy, on 
the contrary, requires some expenditure for fuel. As 
regards cost there is little difference. Even the family 
dairy requires a supply of ice to preserve the milk and 
cream in good condition during the hottest weather, but 
the business dairy and the creamery cannot be carried ou 
without it. With the ice-house is also required a cold 
storage room, for keeping the butter. 

The requisites for a supply of tee are — first, a pond of 
clean pure water ; second, a well-constructed house ; 
and third, a sufficient quantity of dry clean sawdust or 
other similar material for packing. A small ice-house 
will be sufficient for a family dairy, and the supply may 
be generally procured from some adjacent mill-pond or a 
pond made by damming a stream for the purpose of rais- 



ICE-HOUSES. 



325 



ing a sufficient area of water. As forty cubic feet of ice 
make a ton, a space ten by eight feet will yield one ton 
of ice, if it is six inches thick. A pond, then, one hun- 
dred by eighty feet, will yield one hundred tons, if of no 
greater thickness than this. As ice is usually sold on 
the pond for one dollar per ton, an ice pond will be found 
an excellent investment in any dairy country. All that 
is required is a clear running stream, with low banks 
bordered by flat bottom land. A dam may be thrown 
across the stream to back the water up to the higher 
ground on each side. 

The dam must be built upon sound principles, or it 
will not retain the water. The bottom must rest on 
solid fresh ground, free from stone, grass, or decaying 




Fig. 60. — SECTION OF DAM AND POND. 

vegetable matter. The following method will be found 
satisfactory. A trench three feet wide is dug out on the 
line of the dam down to solid ground, clay, or hard pan. 
Stakes are then driven in the middle of the trench reach- 
ing as high as the top of the intended dam, and tongued 
and grooved or otherwise tightly-fitted planks are nailed 
to these stakes. Solid earth is then packed and puddled 
in the trench on both sides of the planks, and the dam 
is then raised to the hight desired over this foundation 
(figure 60). The slope of the dam should be such as 
to make a six-foot dam nine feet wide at the bottom on 
the inside and six feet wide on the outside, or fifteen feet 
in all. This slope is needed to prevent leakage and the 
washing down of the soil. The earth for the dam may 
be dug out of the intended pond. 



326 THE DAIRYMAN^'S MAKUAL. 

The house for storing the ice must be made with non- 
conducting walls, a dry foundation, and ample ventila- 
tion iu the roof. A cheap ice-house is as effective, if 
properly constructed, as the most costly one. There are 
some general principles to be observed in the proper 
construction of any kind of ice-house, and all else is of 
secondary importance. There must be perfect drainage, 
and no admission of air beneath; ample ventilation and 
perfect dryness above ; and sufficient non-conducting 
material for packing below, above, and around the ice, 
by which its low temperature may be preserved. The 
cheapest ice-house may be made as follows : The founda- 
tion should be dug about eighteen inches to two feet 
deep in a dry, gravelly or sandy soil. If the soil is clay, 
the foundation should be dug two feet deeper, and filled 
to that extent with broken bricks, coarse gravel, or 
clean, sharp sand. To make a drain beneath the ice of 
any other kind than this would be risky, and if not made 
with the greatest care to prevent access of air, the drain 
would cause the loss of the ice in a few weeks of warm 
weather. Around the inside of the foundation are laid 
sills of two by six plank, and upon this are /Hoe-nailed" 
studs of the same size, ten feet long, at distances of four 
feet apart. Around these, matched boards or patent 
siding are then nailed horizontally. A door frame is 
made at one end, or if the building is over twenty feet 
long, one may be made at each end for convenience in 
filling. When the outside boarding reaches the top of 
the frame, plates of two by six timber are spiked to the 
studs. Rafters of two by four scantling are then spiked 
to the frame over the studs; a quarter pitch being suffi- 
cient, or if felt roofing is used, a flat roof with a very 
little slope might be used. In this latter case, however, 
the hight of the building should be increased at least one 
foot, to secure sufficient air space above the ice for ven- 
tilation. The roof may be of common boards or shingles, 



ICE-aoUSES. 



32'^' 



or of asbestos roofing ; but the roof must be perfectly 
water-jDroof, and should have broad eaves to shade the 
walls as much as possible from the sun's heat. The out- 
'side of the building, roof included, should be white- 
washed, so as to reflect heat. The inside of the building 
should be lined with good boards placed horizontally, 
and the space between the two boardings should be filled 
closely with the packing. If packing material is scarce, 
air-proof lining, such as is used in the walls of dwelling- 
houses, may be substituted for it; but the joints in this 
case should be carefully made, that the outside air may 




Fig. 61. — SECTION OF ICE-HOUSE FILLED. 

.be excluded and that within the wall be kept stationary. 
In figure 61 is shown a section of the house filled with 
ice; the lining between the walls is shown by the dark 
shading. The packing around the ice should be a foot 
thick at the bottom and the sides, and two feet at the 
top. There should be a capacious ventilator at the top 
of the house, and the spaces above the plates and between 
the rafters at the eaves will permit a constant current of 
air to pass over the upper packing, and remove the col- 
lected vapor. The method of closing the doors is shown 



328 



THE dairyman's MAKUAL. 



at figure 62. Boards are placed across the inside of the 
door as the ice is i^acked, until the top is reached. Eye 
or other long straw is tied into bundles, as shown in the 
illustration, and these bundles are packed tightly into 
the space between the boards and the door. The door 
is then closed. We have found these straw bundles to 
seal up the door-space of an ice-house in summer, as well 
as the door of a root-cellar in winter, very- effectively. 
When the house is opened in the summer, and the upper 
packing is disturbed to reach the ice, it should always be 




Fig. 62.— DOOR FOE ICE-HOUSE. 

carefully replaced, and the door closed up again with the 
straw bundles. The bundles of straw may be fastened 
together by means of two or three cross-laths, and they 
can be removed and replaced very readily. The mate- 
rial required for a house such as is here described, 
twenty feet long, sixteen feet wide, and ten feet high, 
and which will hold over sixty tons of ice, is as follows : 
324 feet' 2x6 studding; 12 rafters 2x4, 12 feet long; 
576 feet matched boards ; 720 feet boards for lining ; 480 
feet roofing boards, 3,000 shingles, or 480 feet of roofing; 
one batten door, hinges and nails. About twenty-five 



ICE-HOUSES. 820 

wagon loads of sawdust or other non-conductor would be 
needed for a house of this size. 

The best j)acking is dry hard-wood sawdust. About 
seven hundred bushels will be required fora house twelve 
feet square, and ten feet high, to give an ample supply. 
If sawdust cannot be procured, dry waste tan bark will 
do very well; dry swamp muck, forest leaves, cut straw 
chaff, or chaff from the threshing machine, are all very 
good substitutes ; but an open air space is only, about 
forty per cent as effective as any one of these substances. 
A house twelve feet square will hold a mass of ice ten 
feet square, which will give about five thousand pounds 
for each foot in hight, yielding a supply of one hundred 
pounds daily, for about two months. One hundred 
pounds of ice will cool one hundred poiinds of water 
from one hundred and seventv-four deo^rees down to 
thirty- two degrees, absorbing one hundred and forty-two 
degrees of heat from the water, in the slow process of 
liquefaction alone. These figures will enable any jDcrson 
to calculate how much ice may be required for any specified 
effect. Thus as one hundred pounds of ice absorbs four- 
teen thousand and two hundred units of heat, and we 
want to cool seven hundred and ten pounds of milk from 
sixty-five to forty-five degrees, we shall find tliat the ice 
will just do it, because seven hundred and ten pounds 
cooled twenty degrees equals fourteen thousand and two 
hundred units. In the use of ice, it is therefore seen to 
be a great economy to cool the milk down to just as low 
a point as possible, by means of cold well or spring water, 
before it is set in the ice- water X)ool. For a three hun- 
dred quart dairy, or for twenty-five cows, then, one 
hundred pounds of ice will be required daily, and for the 
season of eiglit months, when ice may be necessary, 
the ten feet sf|uare of ice should be raised eight feet, 
which will alloAV for waste, which is usually about forty 
or fifty per cent on the avei'age of the season. The re- 



830 THE dairymaid's MAKTJAL. 

ceptacle may be made in a corner of a barn or sbed, 
or a plain shed may be made out-of-doors, or a space in 
a mow of straw may be utilized ; any device is effective, 
if only the above named requisites are secured. 

A very simple ice-house is made in this way. Nine 
poles are set in the ground in a spot where surface water 
will not give trouble. Boards twelve feet long are nailed 
to the posts lengthwise all around, and the corners are 
covered with strijDs, lapping one on to the edge of the 
other, to make a neat and close finish. The boards are 
cut out between the two posts in the center of the front 
to make a doorway, and two inch door-cheeks and lintel 
are spiked 'to these posts. The boards from the inside 
are kept for the loose inside door, to be put in one by 
one, resting against the door-cheeks, as the ice is filled 
in, and the outer boards are nailed with wrought nails 
to upright cleats to make a door. The spaces between 
the doors are filled in with sawdust ; two-inch planks are 
spiked on the posts flat for plates, and a conical roof 
with broad eaA^es, left open at the plates for ventilation, 
is put in. The ice is packed in as shown in figure 61, 
and has eighteen inches of sawdust under it, and a foot 
on each side around it. A covering of eighteen inches 
should be put on top. In cutting the ice, care is to be 
taken to get the blocks of even size, so as to pack it 
closely. A convenient tool v/ith which to get the ice 
out of the water is made of a piece of board about six 
or seven feet long, with a handle put through one end, 
and a cleat nailed on the other end to hold the ice. 
This slippery stuff is held more firmly if a few sharp- 
pointed nails are driven through from the back, so that 
the points project about an inch. 

A very neat building suitable for an ice-house for a 
private dairy is shown at figure Ge3. This house is twelve 
feet square, with sills and plates eight -by-eight inches, 
of hewn logs, and eight-by-eight-inch corner posts, eight 



ICE-HOUSES. 



331 



feet higli. Studding is set in as needed. Rough (or 
planed) boards are nailed horizontally within and per- 
pendicularly without, and the cracks battened with nar- 
row strips. The wall space is filled with sawdust. Dry 
wheat chaff might be used in the absence of sawdust. 
The roof is of single boards, with a ventilating opening 
at the top. The doors are single, with short cross-boards 
inside to hold the ice up. The ice is packed in solid, 




Fi^. 63. — ICE-HOUSE FOB PRIVATE DAIRY. 

except a space of six or eight inches all around filled with 
sawdust. When full, a foot or so of sawdust is put on 
top of the ice. The flooring is of inch boards laid on a 
bed of cobble stones. 

A rustic ice-house on the farm of Donald Gr. Mitchell, 
the popular writer, is shown at figure 64. It is given 
here to show how simple a thing a really effective ice- 
house may be, and that the materials for its construction 
are wholly immaterial so long as the principles before 
mentioned are effectively carried out. 

Cold storage is indispensable for the preservation of 
butter made in the summer time ; and at times it is a 
matter of convenience to use ice for the cooling of the 



332 



THE DAIRYMAN^'S MANUAL. 



pool in wliicli the milk is kept for the cream to separate. 
In considering the cooling effect of ice it must be re- 
membered that the low temperature is only gained by 
the expenditure of the ice, and that it is a question if 
it is better to make use of an ice-house constructed in 
the most economical manner, or to so use the ice as to 
procure a continuous low temperature with the certain 
large waste of ice that would be inevitable. There 
may be some cases, howeyer, in which the ease of op- 
erating a cooling apparatus may be more convenient, 
although it may consume more ice, than to handle 
blocks of ice in carrying them from the ice-house to the 




Fig. 64. — RUSTIC ICE-HOUSE. 

creamery for use. Where ice is abundant this view of 
the question may bo reasonably considered. A point 
that bears strongly upon it is that the ice may be stored 
in the winter when the labor may cost comparatively 
nothing, because there is plenty of time and opportunity 
for the work, and in summer time is more valuable and 
business presses closely upon opportunities, so that the 
handling of tlie ice in the summer would, in fact, be 
more irksome and costly than the waste involved. For 
to open the ice-house, take out the blocks required, carry 



ICE-HOUSES 



333 



!?r?? 






them to the creamery, wasli from them the sawdust or 
other packing, and dispose of them as may he required, 
is, we know from experience, work which occupies con- 
siderable time, when time is scarcely to be spared from 
other pressing duties. The good manager will aim to 
distribute his work so that it may be done in the easiest 
manner consistent with the best results, and as time is 
money, time gained when 
it is worth the most money 
IS equivalent to three or 
four times as much ex- 
pended when it is very 
cheap. We will give a 
plan that will be suitable 
for each method, leaving 
those interested to choose 
between them. A self- 
acting ice-house may be 
constructed in the usual 
manner, but requires the 
addition of ventilating 
tubes through which cold 
air may be brought into 
the cooling room ; and 
drainage pipes by which 
the water produced by the 
^necessary melting of the 
ice may be drawn off from 
the bottom into a cold pool Fio-. 65. 

where it may be utilized ^^^ ^^ ckeamekt and ice-house. 
to the best advantage. A horizontal section or plan 
of an ice-house of this description is given at fig- 
ure 65. Here the ice-house adjoining the creamery is 
shown. Through the body of the ice are four zinc or 
galvanized iron pipes or tubes having a number of holes 
bored through the covering at the top to admit the air. 




.■.V:■n:•^.^^»■;'oT^J?^■.■■^;■:*~^.^J:>■■/J.^■.^V■i?■^^^■>v■■■.■.^af■■^»^■M:. 



TT 



POOL 



A 



i 




f^y^j^y^^.^ 



I 

i 



w//^4m< 



334 



THE dairyma;n^'s manual. 



The spiral galvanized water spouting for buildings serves 
excellently for this purpose. These pipes are brought 
along the bottom, as shown at figure 66, which is an up- 
right section, and open into the creamery on each side 
of the cold pool. The current of air which passes 
through these pipes of course melts and uses up the 
ice and causes a quantity of cold water to be produced 
which must be drawn off, or the whole body of ice would 
rapidly waste. The floor of the ice-house is made to 
slope a little from each side to the center, and the center 
slopes to the front just enough to cause the drainage to 
flow into a pipe provided to receive it. This pipe is 

protected by a fine wire- 
gauze covering to prevent 
the 23acking from being 
washed away. The pipe 
is carried dov\^n through 
the ground and made to 
discharge at the bottom of 
the pool. This is impor- 
tant, for if it discharged 
into the top, air would 
Fig. 66.— CROSS-SECTION OF CREAM- pass luto thc ice through 
ERY AND ICE-HOUSE. j^ j^^d wastc it Considera- 

bly. The outlet of the pipe being always covered with 
water prevents any access of air through it. 

At figure 67 is shown the front view of the wall of the 
creamery with the o^Denings of the cold-air pipes and the 
tank between them. On one side may be made a refrig- 
erating closet for keeping butter in, or one may be made 
on each side if desired. This provides cold storage of 
the most effective kind for a dairy and for keeping eggs 
for sale in the winter. This may be made of sheet iron 
nailed on the inside and outside of the studding and also 
overhead, and painted outside with brown mineral paint 
.and white within. The roof of this closet should slope 




ICE-HOUSES. 



335 



considerably to the rear (figure 68), and a metal gutter 
should be provided to catch the water of condensation 
which will gather on the roof, and this should be carried 
off outside through a pipe having an rn trap in it to 
prevent air passing in. This arrangement provides in 
every way for economizing the ice and utilizing the water 
which wastes from it. It would be necessary to provide 
stoppers for the pijpes, to regulate the flow of cold air 
and prevent a larger consumption of ice than is neces- 



7^??m. 



a::i 



I I 
a » 
■ • 

a I 

H 
li 

lL-:d 








Fig. 67. — ELEVATION OF ICE-HOUSE. 



Fig. 68.— COLD CLOSET. 



sary ; and also to use but one pipe at a time, leaving 
the other for use when the ice which supplies one is 
exhausted. 

The cold storage houses for use in a larger way, as for 
large creameries, cheese factories, or for dealers in dairy 
goods, are constructed upon the simple principle of an 
ice-house without any packing around the ice, but with 
a water-tight and well-drained floor over a lower apart- 
ment. There is a space of a few inches left between the 
body of ice and the wall, through which air may circulate 
and pass down to the room below. A number of holes 
or gratings are made in the floor for the cold air to 
descend. The house is built with non-conducting walls, 
having usually a space of a foot between them packed 



336 



THE U^IHYMAK's manual. 



with dry sawdust, or a new and most excellent material 
known as mineral wool, which is made of furnace slag 
blown by a blast into fine threads. These cold storage 
houses are now in frequent use by fruit growers, butchers, 
brewers, and poultrymen, as well as dairymen, and are 
extremely useful. ; 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



CHEESE MAKING. 



The manufacture of cheese is one of the most im- 
portant industries connected with the preparation of hu- 
man food from a raw material. Milk is a complete food. 
That is, it contains every chemical element required for 
the perfect nutrition of an animal. It has the fat and 
sugar needed for combustion in the lungs to support the 
animal heat and the respiratory process, the caseine to 
make flesh, and the salts to furnish material for the 
bones. And cheese is the most convenient permanent 
form in which milk can be preserved for consumption. 
It contains the caseine or nitrogenous i^art of the milk 
and the fat, leaving only the sugar and the mineral salts in 
the whey which escapes. These elements are most easily 
made up or substituted in the form of bread, and hence 
bread and cheese make the most nutritious food for 
its weight that can be produced. Cheese is composed of 
varying proportions of caseine, fat, water, milk acid and 
some other extractive matters and mineral salts, chiefly 
the salt used in its manufacture, as follows : 



COMPOSITION OF CHEESE. 



Per Cent of 
Extra c;oo(i . 


Witer. 

30.53 
31.70 
38.43 
38.39 


Fat. 

41.58 
36.18 
23.28 
23.21 


Caseine. 

^3T38~ 
27.19 
32.37 
28.37 


Acid, etc. 

2.45 
1.95 
2.10 
6.80 


Ash. 
2.06 


Full milk 


2.98 


Half skim 


3.82 


Skim milk- - 


3.23 



CHEESE MAKIiN'G. 337 

The considerable difference in the quality of these 
samples of cheese is not any exact criterion of the market 
values. The excessive quantity of fat in the first men- 
tioned gives no proportional money value to it in the 
market, the quality most desired in cheese being due to 
the manner of making and curing it, rather than to the 
amount of butter fat that may be contained in it. This, 
however, is to be taken as a general rule only,^ and one 
to which there are some exceptions. Thus, while it is 
true that by certain methods o# making and ripening a 
cheese from half skim or skimmed milk may be ad- 
vanced in value over some full milk cheese, yet there are 
some kinds of cheese, as the exquisite English Stilton, 
which has cream added to the new milk and contains one 
quart of cream to ten quarts of new milk, which bear a 
very high value in the market ; but this, again, is due 
quite as much to the peculiar method of making, by 
which a most delicious flavor is given to it, as to the large 
quantity of fat contained in it. 

But while quality is conferred upon cheese by care and 
skill in making, and by its contents of fat, there are 
some other causes for the variation in quality. Soil and 
climate have something to do with quality, for they con- 
trol to some extent the character of the herbage, and 
undoubtedly food has much to do with the flavor of its 
products. The flesh of animals acquires certain qualities 
from the feeding ; this is unquestionable. The South- 
down mutton, fed upon the short rich herbage of the 
'' downs," or hilly rolling seaside pastures on the chalk 
districts of southern England, and the tender high- 
flavored meat of the Welsh mountain sheep are examples 
of this fact. The hams of Westphalia, fed upon the 
mast of the forests, also have a most agreeable flavor. The 
wines of some vineyards surpass those of all others in 
richness of flavor, and the hops of certain localities sur- 
pass all others in desirable qualities, Consistently with 



338 THE dairyman's manual. 

these analogous facts it cannot be doubted that the pas- 
ture, which is affected by soil and climate, has some 
effect upon the character of dairy products. But, as has 
been stated in the chapter (II.) on dairy farms and the 
selection of localities and soil for dairying, the expert 
and experienced dairyman may make up for all defects 
in these respects by good culture, fertilizing, and the 
growth of such crops as will afford every necessary ele- 
ment in the food for the production of good milk, and 
by such skill in manipulation as will produce the very 
best quality in the butter and cheese made from it. 

In this respect " doctors differ," and some of the 
American experts have stated as their belief that locality, 
soil, herbage and water all have a most important influ- 
ence upon the quality of dairy products. A few years 
ago it was said that Kentucky could never be made an 
excellent dairy region, because of the lack of suitable 
running water and the prevailing cliaracter of the soil. 
The author did not join in this belief and hazarded the 
opinion that good well water, Kentucky blue grass, 
clover and other fodder crops, were quite sufficient as a 
foundation for a successful and profitable dairy business, 
if the skill could be acquired. This view has been justi- 
fied by the capture of $300 in various premiums, by a 
Kentucky lady w^ho manages a well-conducted butter 
dairy, for her product, which was awarded first place in 
the competition at the National Dairy Exhibition, held 
in the city of New York, in the year 1887. 

As coinciding with this view, the author's belief is 
confirmed by leading English experts who cannot fail to 
see that their famous Cheddar cheese, supposed to be a 
special product of a favorable locality, soil and pasturage, 
is actually beaten in competition by the best American 
** Cheddar," made under wholly different conditions, but 
by the most skillful dairymen in both the United States 
and Canada. At the same time we may see American 



CHEESE MAKING. 339 

Limburger, Brie, Edam, Neufcliatel, Schweitzer, and 
other special makes of French, English and German 
cheese, made in various, widely distant localities, and 
fully equal in all respects to those made in the localities 
which became famous a century ago for these cheeses. 

'' Skillful labor conquers all difficulties," and we do 
not hesitate to affirm that in cheese making, while there 
are some naturally favorable conditions for the most 
successful prosecution of the industry, yet by the appli- 
cation of the necessary skill quite as "good qualities, in all 
the varieties which are produced anywhere in the world, 
can be made in America upon farms well chosen for 
their adaptation to the special pursuit, as in any locality 
elsewhere. 

The curd of milk is the material of which cheese is 
made. This consists of a nitrogenous substance known 
as caseine, and is included among a group of similar 
substances which are nearly or quite the same in composi- 
tion. These substances are — besides caseiue — albumen 
of eggs, blood and vegetable^ matter, fibrin of flesh and 
blood, gluten of various grains, as of wheat, oats, and 
legumin of peas, beans and other luguminous or pod- 
bearing plants. x\ll these substances are free from color, 
taste, and odor, are insoluble in water and alcohol, but 
dissolve in alkaline solutions, coagulate from their so- 
lutions on the addition of acids or rennet, and ferment 
readily, emitting a most disagreeable odor, and pro- 
ducing among other compounds some acids and am- 
monia. Legumin is used by the Chinese for making 
cheese which is identical in all respects with the cheese 
of milk curd. 

The caseine is held in solution in the milk by means 
of the free soda, and is precipitated by the addition of 
any acid substance ; being insoluble in water or any 
neutral liquid it becomes solid as soon as the soda is 
neutralized, and the milk is rendered neutral instead of 



340 THE DAIRYMAID'S MAIDUAL. 

alkaline. A clear nnderstanding of these facts in regard 
to thecaseine is indispensable to the dairyman, who must 
be able at all times to make his own rules for guidance 
in emergencies when unexpected difficulties and obstacles 
arise and are met with. 

The caseine may be precipitated or changed into curd — 
which is its solid form, but rendered soft by the mechan- 
ical mixture with it of a large proportion of water — by any 
acid, and in making some kinds of cheese acetic acid, 
hydrochloric acid, or lactic acid in the form of sour milk, 
is used for making the curd. But the commonly used 
agent for procuring the curd is rennet or the dried 
stomach of a young unweaned calf which has sucked the 
dam. Other similar substances are used for this purpose. 

The calf's stomach will always be the most popular 

substance used for this purpose in cheese making, and its 

preparation may well be considered particularly. The 

stomach of the newly-killed sucking calf only is used. 

This contains some of the curd of the milk upon which 

it has been fed, and in some dairy districts the calf is 

given a copious drink of milk shortly before it is killed, 

-^ so that the stomach may contain a 

M/ larger quantity of this curd, which is 

ffltf^Xi preserved with the stomach. The stom- 

/ %w ach, either emptied of its contents or 

ij Wk with these intact, is salted inside and 

nl ^-'^^i ^^^ ^^^^ dried in a warm j^lace. The 

pi ? ., ! i|Siii| i^sua] method is to turn the stomach, 

M\;ll UJtflPly shake off the curd, salt the stomach, re- 

^IMiSsS^ turn it and salt the outer side, then 

^^^BS^ stretch it upon an elastic twig and 
Fig. 69. hang it up to dry (figure 69). When 

the rennets are perfectly dry they may be jDut into 
a bag and hung up in the dairy-room for preserva- 
tion. Other methods arc used in different localities, 
such as to pickle the stomachs in brine and dry them, 



CHEESE MAKIITG. 341 

or to pack them in jars or barrels in salt and keep 
them until required for use. In Italy and Switzerland 
the stomachs are chopped up very fine, mixed with salt, 
pei^per, bread crumbs and whey into a paste which is 
pressed into jars or bladders and kept for use. The 
rennet improves with age and is the strongest when ten 
or twelve months old. New rennet is charged with pro- 
ducing heading, swelling or '^'huffing" of the cheese. 
This peculiarity strongly corroborates the view above 
taken as to the nature of the action of rennet, for time 
is necessary to produce most effectively the organic 
change which takes place in the membrane and upon 
which its action depends. 

Rennet is used in a liquid form, because it can then 
be quickly and intimately mingled with the milk. For 
its proper action it must be thoroughly stirred into the 
milk which is brought to a certain temperature, lower or 
higher according to circumstances, for the reason that 
the germinative action is hastened by a proper degree of 
warmth. Usually the dried stomach is infused in warm 
water or whey, and some dairymen add the juice of 
lemons to the infusion, one quart of the liquid being 
used for each stomach. Half a pint of the infusion to 
100 gallons of milk is generally sufficient to bring the 
curd in one hour, with the milk at a temperature of 
about eighty degrees. 

The procuring of the curd is one of the most impor- 
tant manipulations in making cheese, as the quality of 
the product and its ripening or curing depend very much 
upon this part of the process being curried out with 
great carefulness and skill. The flavor of the cheese 
may be seriously affected by bad and impure rennet, and 
if putrefactive germs are contained in it, the decom- 
posing ferment will assuredly be communicated to the 
cheese with disastrous effect. Doubtless many of the 
inexplicable troubles of the dairyman arise from the use 



342 THE DAIRYMAK S MAKUAL. 

of ill-conditioned rennet, and this should be carefully 
guarded against. It is always a safe precaution, when 
doubt exists as to the purity of the rennet, to filter it 
through flannel or even through cotton fiber or blotting 
paper. By varying the character of the rennet the char- 
acter of the cheese may be changed, and where many 
varieties of fancy cheese are made the rennet used differs 
iVery much. Some very celebrated French cheeses are 
made of rennet prepared with water to which brandy is 
added in the proportion of one-third, and spices and 
aromatic herbs are steeped with the stomachs in this 
mixture. For other cheeses pig's bladder is steeped in 
white wine and vinegar, and others again are made with 
diluted acids only. 

The exhausted stomachs need not be thrown away, 
but may be again salted and left to renew their strength. 
This they will do in the course of some months, and as 
yet no one has been able to say when this power of re- 
covering their activity will be entirely lost. If this 
activity depends upon, or belongs to, the membrane, as 
almost conclusively appears, it may last until the mem- 
brane itself is dissolved away. 

It has been stated that a certain quantity of the liquid 
rennet is sufficient to produce a certain effect upon a 
given quantity of milk at a stated temperature. If one of 
these elements of the process is varied, the others are sub- 
ject to a proportionate change. Thus if the temperature 
is higher the time is reduced ; if the quantity of rennet is 
increased the time is lessened. At a lower temperature 
more rennet is required or more time must be given. 
These nice calculations must be based upon the normal 
conditions given as well as upon the quality and strength 
of the rennet ; and these vaiy as the age of the dried 
stomachs or the mode of preparing the solution. A 
standard preparation of rennet is made for use in the 
dairy, and the dairyman will be able to make his calcula- 



CHEESE MAKIITG. 343 

tions more precisely and more safely by using such a 
material as is always of the same strength and effective- 
ness, than by the too common ''rule of thumb" or hap- 
hazard or guesswork method in use in dairies. The 
temperature too should be noted exactly by an accurately 
graduated thermometer, which should be tested carefully 
before it is used ; as it is not uncommon for the cheap 
thermometers in use to vary two or three or even five 
degrees, and such variation might be fatal to success 
and a continual source of unsatisfactory work, the reason 
for which would perplex the unsuspecting dairyman. 

Acidity is not a necessary element in making curd. 
Indeed it is at once the surprise and the bane of the cheese 
maker, and must be guarded against with the greatest 
care. Acid is produced no doubt in the milk by the action 
of the peculiar organism or ferment of the rennet, but it is 
instantly neutralized by its own effect ; viz., the precipi- 
tation of the caseine and the formation of the curd. 
Thus the curd is sweet an(i the whey is sweet, until, by 
a process of internal change in the curd, lactic acid is 
formed from the sugar held in the moisture of the curd 
and acidity becomes induced. This subject, however, is 
too important to be passed over lightly, and will be more 
fully treated of when the chemistry of cheese making is 
considered further on in this chapter. 

There are several methods of making cheese, each dif- 
fering in some important particular. The most frequent 
is by using the whole milk, or milk half skimmed ; some 
is made by adding cream to the new milk, and some is 
made of skimmed milk. At least one very popular kind 
of cheese is made of ewe's milk, and several kinds have 
some foreign matter, as herbs or spices added to the 
curd. The greatest variety in cheese making, however, 
is in reo^ard to the curing, and, in fact, this is by far the 
most important part of the industry, and requires the 
most experience and skill in its practice. 



344 THE DAIKrMAN^S MANUAL. 

The Mechanism of Cheese Making is now to be 
considered. This has been more liighly developed in 
America than in any other country, although foreign 
dairymen are rapidly adopting the American system and 
practice. The factory system, as it is called, is now al- 
most universally practiced. A few farm dairies are still 
worked, but even in these the method is practically that 
of the factory on a small scale. This system was 
begun in 1880 by a dairyman named Jesse AVilliams, 
who lived near Kome, in Oneida Co., New York, and 
who was drawn into it by force of circumstances, and for 
the sake of convenience, just as the factory sj-stem of 
making cotton and woolen goods, iron goods, nails, and 
other products of general use, grew from family work at 
home into concentrated industries in buildings especially 
fitted with labor-saving machinery for these manufac- 
tures. It was a foregone conclusion, from the necessities 
of the case, that the household manufacture of cheese 
upon dairy farms should be supplanted by associated 
enterprise in this direction, because the isolated farm 
dairy cannot produce cheese nearly as cheaply as several 
dairies workinsr tos^ether can do. And in the case of 
Jesse Williams, it was first the union of a family of cheese 
makers to secure the skill of the father in helping to work 
up the product of his own dairy and those of his sons 
which in time led to the establishment of the thousands 
of factories now in operation. . 

Necessarily this concentration of labor and apparatus 
greatly reduces the cost of manufacture, for whereas it 
costs nearly two cents a pound to make up the niilk of 
twenty cows into cheese, the milk of forty cows can be 
made up for less than one cent a pound ; and while the 
building and apparatus for working up the milk of forty 
cows costs 1300 or $400, a factory in which the milk of 
twenty times as many cows can be worked up will cost 
scarcely more than six times as much, and where the 



CHEESE MAKIKG. 345 

profit in working a factory for 600 or 800 cows would be 
more than $1,000 the same factory with 300 or 400 cows 
would make no profit at all. In fact, the advantages 
which accrue from this associated dairying are such that 
as few as ten dairymen could profitably combine in estab- 
lishing one for their own herds and without securing 
aid from other neighbors. 

The saving in the cost of furniture, building, and 
working is not all ; there are in addition the advantages 
of better quaUty, through the skilled work of one maker, 
and the better market price which can be realized from 
this uniformity of make and quality. There are two 
methods of managing the business of a cheese factory; 
one is by purchasing the milk outright from the farmers 
at a stated price, and another by making the cheese on a 
co-operative principle and distributing the proceeds, pro 
rata, according to the quantity of milk delivered by 
each member, after a certain fixed charge has been made 
for manufacturing. This charge is usually two cents 
per pound of manufactured cheese. The method, how- 
ever, of organizing the business is immaterial just at 
present ; it is the management that is more pertinent to 
us at this point. 

A cheese factory consists of a building adapted to the 
^requirements of the machinery used in the manufacture, 
for the proper reception of the milk, and for the curing 
of the cheese. It is provided with a steam boiler for 
heating purposes, a curing-room for storing the cheese, 
and apartments for the manager. It should be con- 
structed in such a manner as to maintain an equal and 
steady temperature with economical consumption of fuel 
and be connected with efPective drainage by which the 
refuse whey may be carried off to a safe distance. A 
frame building with an eight or ten-inch air-space be- 
tween the inner and outer walls, and protected by 
air-proof lining, answers eveiy desirable purpose. The 



346 



.^'fr 



THE DAIRYMAX'S MANUAL. 



ground floor should be amply spacious, and a two-story 
building with curing- room above is the cheapest. As an 
even temperature and a stable condition of moisture and 
good ventilation are required, it would seem that a base- 
ment curing-room would be preferable to any other. It 
would certainly provide every requisite in a more certain 
manner than an upper floor. 

The factory site should be on high, airy, well-drained 
ground. A permanent supply of water sufficient to fill a 
two-inch pipe is needed, for a factory of 500 cows. A 




Fig. 70.— CHEESE FACTORY. 

building of this capacity should be seventy-five feet long 
by thirty-two feet wide at least, and the floor should be 
nine feet in the clear. If the curing-room is in the base- 
ment, a story-and-a-half building only will be needed. 
The frame should be substantial ; the lower floor of 
matched hard pine plank, slopes three inches from front 
to rear, where a trapped drain is made to convey aw^ay 
all the slop and whey and the washing of the floor. The 
whole interior should be double plastered. The upper 
floor should be matched and tight, and to avoid pillars 
in the lower room the beams should be supported by iron 



CHEESE MAKING. 



347 



rods attached to collar beams in the roof. An ice cham- 
ber, or, which is far better, one of the ice and cold-air 
machines now made and to be procured for a moderate 
sum, is needed to control the summer temperature. The 
most ample arrangements for thorough ventilation are 
indispensable. 

The space on the lower floor required for manufactur- 
ing will be about forty feet in length. This is separated 
from the rest of the building by a close double partition 
having a large sliding door in the center or otherwise 




is. 



Fig. 71.— ARKANGEMENT OP CHEESE FACTORY. 

placed, as may be found convenient for the removal of 
cheese, from the press to the curing-room, for which 
this space is set apart. 

A convenient arrangement is as shown at figure 71. 
At ^ is a covered driveway for unloading, with a plat- 
form for receiving and weighing the milk. The milk is 
then conducted by means of the milk conductor to the 
vats, a, «, a, here represented as 600-gallon ones, and 
three in number. The curd sink is at c; the boiler 
at 5; the presses at e, and the cheese tables are seen 



348 



THE DAIRTMAN^S MAKUAL. 



in the curing room adjoining. The drain is shown by 
the dotted lines (figure 71). 

The curing-room is furnished with benches, twenty- 
four inches high and three feet wide, made of strips 




Fig. 72.— cmrnsTG house. 

having spaces between them to facilitate circulation of 
air. These benches should be carefully made to avoid 
cracks or spaces in the joints which would harbor cheese 
maggots, the great pest of the cheese factory. They 
should be ranged at a distance of two feet apart and the 




Fig. 73.— WEIGHING CAN. 



Fig. 74.— CONDUCTING PIPE. 



cheeses are placed on them in double rows. A roomy 
closet should be provided in which to keep the numerous 
small utensils and for a wash-stand and towels for the 
men. The factory is best warmed by steam coils sup- 
plied from the boiler, and a small engine of five-horse 



CHEESE JIAKIJS'GT. 



349 



power at least will do all the hoisting, pumping, or forc- 
ing water for washing, and grinding the curd. The 
upper curing-room, or the basement if that is used, is 
furnished in the manner described, and an elevator for 
moving the cheese will be found very convenient. A 
sliding trough will also serve to pass the cheese from the 
upper to the lower floor. 

The style of building for a factory may be varied to 
suit the taste or ambition of the owners. Fancy work 




Fig;. 75. — CUED knives. 



Fig. 76.— CURD MILL. 



]3ays nothing, and plainness and substantial work and 
material only are required for economy and for use. 
Figure 70 represents a well-arranged factory in Northern 
Vermont in which the whole is under one roof. In 
some factories the curing and store-houses are made 
separately, with every appliance for coolness, such as 
shutters and ventilators, double walls, and an open space 
under the building. A separate curing house belonging 
to a well known New York factory is shown at figure 72. 
These buildings are plain but sufficient for every purpose. 
The apparatus for a factory of this size consists of the 
weighing can (Bgure 73); a conducting pipe (figure 74), 



350 



THE dairyman's MANUAL. 



by which the milk is conducted, as it is received on the 
platform (this is raised to get the required flow), to the 
vats ; the vats, of which there are several kinds in use. 




Fifif. 77. — CHEESE PRESS. 



are arranged for heating by steam from the boiler ; the 
curd knives (figure 75), of which there are two, one for 
vertical cutting and the other for dividing the cord hori- 
zontally, so as to leave it in small cubes ; a curd mill 




Fie:. 78.— GANG PRESS. 



(figure 76) for breaking up the curd when it has been 
solidified by the cookins:, and the press and hoops (figure 
77), or the gang press (figure 78), by which a large num- 



CHEESE JtlAKIXG. 351 

ber of cheeses are pressed at one time. For a factory for 
500 or 800 cows, a seventy-gallon receiving can will be 
required ; two gang presses, or twenty self-bandaging 
lioops and five or six single presses. The whole appa- 
ratus will cost about $80 for 20 cows, $100 for 30 cows, 
$140 for 40 cows, $250 for 100 cows, $450 for 200 cows, 
$G00 for 300 cows, $700 for 400 cows, and $1,000 to 
$1,200 for 600 cows and upwards. 

The process of making cheese in a factory is as follows: 
The milk received at the factory in the evening is cooled 
down to about sixty degrees, at which it is kept until 
morning. The morning's delivery is added, and the whole 
is thoroughly stirred and heated to eighty degrees. The 
rennet is then added and well stirred through the milk, 
sufficient being used to bring the curd in forty-five min- 
utes to one hour. When the curd has become solid 
enough that a cube of it three or four inches square will 
retain its shape when lifted, it is cut four times, twice 
with each curd knife at intervals of a few minutes. The 
curd is then gently moved to separate the whey, and the 
viit is heated gradually to ninety-five or ninety-six degrees; 
a little more or less is often preferred by different cheese 
makers or for special makes of cheese, this process being 
used for what is known as the American cheese. The 
'iieating is continued for an hour to an hour and a half; 
the less period is used for a soft cheese and the longer 
one for a harder and firmer one, as may be desired by the 
maker. When the heating has been completed, the curd 
is stirred for fifteen minutes to cause it to separate more 
completely and to pack at the bottom of the vat, where 
it remains until the whey is completely separated. 

Up to this point there is no important difference be- 
tween the so-called Cheddar metliod and the ordinary 
one known in England as the Cheshire process, except 
that the Cheshire cheese is made of curd set at ninety 
degrees and not heated afterw^ards. But here a diver- 



362 THE DAIRYMAN S MAN^UAL. 

gence of method between the ibwo systems begins, and a 
slight difference between the so-called American method 
and the English Cheddar, which will be noticed as we 
proceed. 

The separation of the whey from the curd is the ini- 
tial point of difference. The whey is not drawn off in the 
American system until some slight acidity has been de- 
veloped, when it is run off, and the curd is then removed 
to the sink to drain and cool. The management at this 
point requires experience and skill, for the formation of 
acid is to be regulated, retarded, or hastened, with the 
greatest nicety, on the principle that heat rapidly de- 
velops the acidity, while cold retards it. Hence it is 
sometimes necessary to spread or otherwise cool the curd 
ill the sink, and sometimes to heap it to retain the heat. 
When the curd has become solid it is torn into fragments 
of two or three pounds in weight and left to cool, to 
harden the fat in it and avoid its loss. The curd is 
then ground into small pieces in the mill and salted at 
the rate of a pound and a half to two pounds per 100 
pounds of curd or 1,000 pounds of milk used. The curd 
is then put into the hoops for pressing. 

In the English Cheddar system, by which the best plain 
cheese in the Avorld is made, milk of the morning and 
evening is brought to a temperature of from seventy-eight 
to eighty-four degrees, according to the condition of the 
weather ; if that has been w^arm, the rennet will be as 
effective with the lower temperature, as with the higher 
after a cold night. The evening's milk is placed in ves- 
sels to cool during the night, being stirred at intervals 
during the evening. It is skimmed in the morning, and 
the cream' with a portion of the milk is heated up to 100 
degrees. The whole is poured into the vat or tub, into 
which the morning's milk is being strained, so that the 
whole is brought to the jDropor temperature above men- 
tioned. The rennet, half-a-pint to 100 gallons of milk. 



CHEESE MAKING. 353 

is then poured in. The rennet is made from small 
stomachs of calves killed at a week old, cured, and kept 
eighteen months before being used. The stomachs are 
steeped in salt water — one quart to each — for three weeks. 
The rennet is strong enough to form the curd in one hour 
at the above temperature. The curd is cut in the usual 
manner with curd-knives, but with great care lest the 
cream should escape with the whey, and with several 
interruptions of the process, which in all takes half an 
hour. It is thus broken into pieces no larger than peas. 
The whole mass is then gradually and carefully heated, 
by means of hot water let into a space around the cheese 
vat, up to 100 degrees. This takes half an hour. The 
hot water is then drawn ofP, and the curd is stirred for 
half an hour in the hot whey, being then reduced to still 
smaller fragments. Another half hoar is allowed for the 
curd to settle, when the whey is drawn off into a vat six 
inches deep, where it is cooled, skimmed, and the cream 
made into butter. This is equal to about half a pound 
per cow per v>'eek. After standing another half hour, to 
develop the right degree of acidity, the curd is cut into 
pieces, turned over, left for half an hour longer, and 
again cut and left for a quarter of an hour. It is then 
slightly acid to the taste. If the acid becomes too much 
developed, the cheese will not press solidly, but will sink 
and become misshapen. It is then torn to pieces by 
hand and cooled, packed in thin layers in the vat, and 
after being pressed for half a day, it is again broken 
up by hand. When cool, sour, dry, and tough enough, 
it is ground in the curd-mill; two pounds of salt are 
added to 112 pounds of curd, and when quite cold it is 
placed in the hoop with the cloth, and taken to the press. 
The pressure is about 1,800 to 2,000 pounds. The cloth 
is changed tiie next day, and again on the second day. 
On the third day the cheese is taken from the press to 
the cheese-room, bandaged, and turned daily for some 



354 THE dairyman's MAiq^UAL. 

time. The temperature of the cheese-room is kept at 
sixty-five degrees. The cheese is ready for sale at the 
end of three months. The weights of these cheeses are 
from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty pounds, 
this being dependent upon the size of the dairy. ' 

The American Cheddar method differs but slightly 
from the above. The milk is warmed to about eighty de- 
grees, the proper temperature for coagulation ; it is then 
well stirred to insure the even distribution of heat, and 
the rennet is added and thoroughly mingled by stirring. 
The curdling is complete in forty to sixty minutes, when 
the mass is stirred, or broken by a many-bladed curd-knife 
into small blocks to facihtate its separation from the whey. 
When the curd has acquired sufficient firmness, it is more 
thoroughly broken, either by the hands or by what is 
known as an agitator. After the curd is broken up, heat 
is applied by means of steam pipes until the whey and 
curd together are brought to a temperature of about 100 
degrees. During this heating the curd is stirred, and 
after the *' cooking" is complete it is left to rest, with 
occasional stirrings, until a proper degree of approach 
to acidity is observed in the whey. The whey is then 
drawn off, and the curd is heaped in the vats and left to 
become sour. Upon the exact degree of acid tliat is de- 
veloped in the curd, depends, in a great measure, the 
quality of the cheese ; and the skillful practice of an 
experienced cheese maker is perhaps more needed just 
here than in any other part of the process. Those who 
need it can use what is known as the hot-iron test ; this 
is to take a bar, or rod, of iron heated to a point some- 
what less than a dull red heat, and bring it into contact 
with a piece of curd. If, when the hot iron is drawn 
from the curd, it brings with it a quantity of glutinous 
strings, the curd is ready for removal from the vats. It 
is dipped out from these with the curd dipper, a pail having 
a flat side, into a cooler, the vat being tipped by means 



CHEESE MAKING. 355 

of winches. The curd is left here to cool for a few min- 
utes, when it is turned over and again left, to acquire a 
certain mellowness. It is then pressed for ten minutes, 
when it is taken out, ground in the curd mill, and salted, 
two pounds of salt being used for 100 pounds of curd. 
The proper temperature of the curd is kept up during 
these processes by covering it with a cloth. After hav- 
ing been ground, and salted, the curd is put into the 
presses, in which it remains under pressure for two or 
three days. The pressure, which is regulated by means 
of a screw, should be sufficient to force out the whey 
and consolidate the cheese. It is obvious that much tact 
and experience are needed to produce cheese of first 
quality, when it is considered what a multitude of inter- 
fering and complicated changes may occur in the con- 
dition of the curd, through atmospheric effects, the 
quality of the milk or the rennet, or unavoidable diffi- 
culties in securing the precise degrees of heat or fermen- 
tation of the curd. But in the well-managed cheese 
factory all danger of failure is reduced to a minimum, 
as compared with the chances of a hundred small dairies 
all differently managed, and without the machinery 
needed for accurate manipulation. It is on account of 
this uniformity in quality that the American factory 
cheese fills a place in the markets of the world that no 
other dairy product has ever done, or is likely to do. 

When the milk is somewhat sour, different treatment 
is required. As milk slightly sour will coagulate more 
easily than sweet milk, less rennet might be supposed 
necessary. But in practice and for very good reasons the 
quantity of rennet is increased by good makers, so as to pro- 
duce curd as quickly as possible, thus preventing exces- 
sive acidity. As soon as the curd is set, the manipulation 
is hastened for the purpose of producing the requisite 
acid, but without heatins: to more than ei^htv-six de- 
grees, and if the milk has been quite sour no heating is 



356 THE DAIRYMAlir'S MANUAL. 

given. It will be easily understood that as heat tends to 
encourage rapid souring, a less amount of it will equalize 
the excess of acidity in the milk and bring the curd to 
the required degree of sourness for the best condition of 
preparation for the salting and pressure. 

It sometimes happens that the milk becomes tainted, 
or contains putrefactive germs, in the hottest part of the 
season. This condition of the milk is doubtless due to 
some abnormal state of the cow by overheating, and 
sometimes it is known to occur from the use of impure 
water. When such milk is curdled there is a produc- 
tion of gas in the curd which causes it to float, and this 
interferes very much with the work of the cheese maker. 
To overcome this defect in the milk, some of the best 
cheese makers do not cool the night's milk, but permit 
it to develop "incipient acidity and then proceed as with 
good milk until the whey is separated from the curd. 
The whey is left on the curd, and the separation post- 
poned until acid is distinctly developed, when it is drawn 
off and the usual process is completed. Curd made from 
such milk will swell np and emit an offensive odor ; this 
odor, however, is neutralized by the gradually increasing 
acid, by which the putrefactive germs seem to be de- 
stroyed, and in the end, by the most skillful management 
in the final handling of the curd, a very fair quality of 
cheese can be made. 

A long experience and close observation and study are 
requisite to make an expert cheese maker, but a knowl- 
edge of the principles involved in the art will very much 
facilitate the gathering of the necessary experience. With 
such a complex substance as milk, and with so many in- 
completely understood changes and results of fermenta- 
tion, oxidation, and heat, it is not surjmsing that no 
precise rules can be laid down for the guidance of the 
beginner. All that can be done by the most enthusiastic 
and painstaking learner is to study the preliminaries and 



CHEESE MAKING. 357 

the principles of his business, and then work out his own 
practice after many mistakes aud defeats. 

The Chemistry of Cheese Making is a very involved 
and intricate study, but it is not difficult to reduce it to 
a system and explain the causes for the curious effects of 
the process. When milk is left exposed to the atmos- 
phere for a varying length of time it becomes acid, and 
separates into two parts, one a solid and the other. a 
liquid. The time required for this change varies with 
the temperature, being longer or shorter as the tempera- 
ture may be lower or higher. The production of acidity 
is due to the formation of lactic acid by the decomposi- 
tion of the sugar of the milk. The acid thus formed 
combines with the free soda which always exists in 
normal milk in its fresh state, and this combination goes 
on until the alkali is all exhausted, when acid begins to 
accumulate. 

The caseine of the milk is soluble in an alkaline fluid, 
but not in a neutral one. Consequently, when the alkali 
(the free soda) in the milk is neutralized by the formation 
of lactic acid, the caseine is precipitated or becomes 
solid, being no longer soluble in the milk. But the 
curd does not separate from the whey until heat is applied, 
when the curd contracts in bulk and forces the whey out 
from among its particles, all the more freely when it is 
cut into small pieces and is raised to a considerably high 
temperature, as that used in cheese-making; viz., eighty 
to one hundred degrees. In making cheese it is not 
usual to permit the milk to become sour and precipitate 
the curd in that way. This process is performed by the 
addition of some substance which acts chemically upon 
the milk to hasten the production of the curd with de- 
veloping acidity. Any acid will curdle milk, and in the 
manufacture of some kinds of cheese, vinegar, tartaric 
acid, lemon juice, cream of tartar, hydrochloric (muri- 
atic) acid, and even oxalate of potash (salt of sorrel) have 



358 THE DAIEYMAJ^'S MANUAL. 

been used, besides sour milk, and the common rennet, 
to produce the curd. 

Caseine itself is an acid substance and combines with 
the soda of the milk under certain circumstances, and 
then becomes soluble in the water of the milk, although 
it is practically insoluble in pure water. AVhen any acid 
is added to the milk it takes the soda from the caseine 
and combines with it, thus causing the caseine to re- 
sume its insoluble condition and separate from the fluid. 
The action of rennet differs in some degree from this, 
but it is quite as simple and easy to understand. This 
substance is the digestive or fourth stomach of a young 
calf, cured and preserved for keeping and use. The 
stomach in its fresh state always contains a quantity of 
curd in it which is, sometimes washed out, together with 
some mucus, which is almost always found with it in 
the stomach. In some localities this curdy matter is 
salted for immediate use ; in others it is left in the 
stomach and both are salted together, and it is not 
unusual to feed the calf a short time before it is killed, 
so as to procure a large quantity of this curd. 

The mode of sal tin sr varies. Sometimes the stomach 
is partly filled with salt and some is applied to the out- 
side, and the stomach is then rolled and hung in a warm 
place to dry. Other dairymen pickle the stomachs in 
brine for a few days, and then dry them; this pickle is 
then preserved for use as rennet. In Cheshire, Eng- 
land, the stomachs are packed in jars in layers with salt 
inside and outside of them, and kept for a year; in some 
European countries the stomachs are chopped finely, 
mixed with salt and crumbs of bread into a paste, and 
preserved in bladders for use. In Italy, where the famous 
Parmesan cheese is made, the stomachs are chopped up 
and made into a paste, with salt, pepper, and iv^hey, and 
this paste is dried for use. 

The common practice is to keep these various prepare- 



CHEESE MAKIKG. 359 

tions for twelve months before using them, in the belief 
that they gain strength daring this period and then yield 
the best and strongest rennet. When used, the various 
dried preparations are steeped in water or whey, the 
infusion being saturated with salt, and this liquid is 
bottled and kept for two months before it is made use 
of. In some places the stomachs thus steeped are dried 
and salted and used a second or even a third time, after a 
period of rest, and it is possible so to use the stomach re- 
peatedly for an indefinite period. The question then 
occurs. By what means does the rennet effect the coagu- 
lation of the milk ? 

Rennet is a digestive agent. In the process of diges- 
tion of milk the gastric juice which is secreted by the 
stomach is always acid ; and it contains a considerable 
proportion of lactic acid as well as of hydrochloric acid. 
The cells of the stomach known as the peptic cells secrete 
this fluid, which contains in addition to the acids a small 
quantity of an albuminous -compound known as pepsine, 
and this substance is supposed to be chiefly concerned 
in the digestion of albuminoid portions of the food. 
Then we must believe that the coagulating property of 
rennet is a true digestive function, and that the liquid 
rennet is really an artificial gastric fluid. We know 
further that the ripening of cheese is r-ally a digestive 
process, and the well-ripened cheese is used as an aid to ■ 
digestion ; proving that the influence of the rennet is 
carried into and shared with it by the cheese. But 
whatever may be the hidden secret— as yet undiscovered 
—we cannot free our mind from the conviction that the 
coagulation of the milk, and the production of curd, are 
really due to the action of lactic acid produced in' the 
milk by the rennet. 

Then the question arises. Why does milk curdle so 
much more quickly under the influence of rennet than 
by the ordinary process of souring ? This more effective 



360 THE daieyma:n^*s manual. 

action is explained by the fact that the active principle of 
the rennet is dissolved in the water which is intimately 
diffused though the whole mass of the milk and an 
infinite number of centers of action are produced in con- 
tact with every particle of the caseine. Acid is thus 
formed all through the milk ; the soda is neutralized all 
through it, and the caseine is precipitated very rapidly. 
But by ordinary souring the caseine is first precipi- 
tated by the action of the air ; this action is diffused 
very slowly through the milk, chiefly from the sur- 
face, and the curdling is therefore effected very slowly. 
Moreover, this action of the rennet explains why the 
curd is solidified and the whey remains sweet ; because 
the acid is neutralized as soon as it is formed, by its 
combination with the soda of the milk, and the caseine 
becomes insoluble as soon as the alkali has been com- 
pletely neutralized by the acid; the acid is then, of course, 
neutralized by the mutual action of itself and the soda. 
Thus the milk becomes a neutral or sweet liquid, while 
the caseine is precipitated as an insoluble curd. If soda 
could be added again to the whey the curd might be 
redissolved. 

As soon as the curd is set, a further change immedi- 
ately becomes imminent. This is the acidification of the 
whey by the continued decomposition of the remaining 
milk-sugar, and as the caseine contains about forty per 
cent of whey this change necessarily affects the curd. 
It has considerable influence upon the quality of the 
cheese and is watched very closely by the dairyman. 
This change is called the ripening of the curd and of the 
cheese, and is due to the internal decomposition of the- 
curd, and of the cheese which the curd becomes by its 
continuance. The whey remaining in the cheese contains 
lactic acid, and as some of this is necessarily left, there is 
a leaven of fermentation remaining, which is the basis 
for a continuous decomposition, the end of wliich would 



CHEESE MAKIJ^a. 361 

be putrefaction if the cheese were kept long enough. 
To prevent this result salt is used. The effect of salt is 
to arrest the progress of acidity — which is preliminary 
to the more complete decomposition ending in putrefac- 
tive fermentation — and to flavor the cheese and make 
it palatable. The salt is added to the curds when they 
are cool, and this practice is universally considered as 
requisite to the securing of a fine delicate flavor. The 
antiseptic effect of salt necessarily affects the process of 
ripening, hence when rapid ripening is desired the least 
quantity of salt or about two per cent of the green curd 
is used, and when a slower curing is wished for as much 
as two and a half or three pounds per 100 are used. Only 
the very purest and finest salt should be used, and to 
get its best effect it should be ground very fine. 

Temperature, as has been stated in previous chapters, 
is a most energetic chemical agent, and has consequently 
an important effect on the ripening or curing process, 
and this agency is the most critical part of the treat- 
ment to which the class of cheeses noted for their hisfh 
flavor is subjected. The size of the cheese, too, necessar- 
ily becomes a serious element in this regard, for a long 
time will be required to affect the whole mass of a large 
cheese, while a small one may be brought under the in- 
fluence of heat or cold in a few hours. The warmth of 
the curing-room, the steadiness of the temperature, the 
freshness and purity of its atmosphere, the periods 
of turning the cheeses, the greasing of the surface for 
the purpose of excluding air, all these circumstances 
have an important chemical effect upon the condition of 
the cheese. 

A comparatively high temperature produces rapid 
ripening, while a low temperature so controls the chem- 
ical changes which go on in the cheese, and which are 
due to the peculiar character of the caseine, as to cause 
a long period to elapse before the ripening is completed. 



362 THE DAlRYMAN^S MANUAL. 

Caseine contains a large proportion (fifteen and a half 
per cent) of nitrogen, and daring its decomposition in 
the ripening process some of this nitrogen is converted 
into ammonia, and it is to this product that the strong 
and pungent ammoniacal odor of such cheeses as the Lim- 
burger, Brie, and others that are highly ripened is due. 
These are all soft unpressed cheese, and are ripened in 
rooms kept at a temperature of sixty to seventy degrees. 
These cheeses contain much fat, and as caseine has the 
ability to produce butyric acid from the oleine of the 
butter fat, this strongly odorous compound adds to the 
strength of this class of cheeses. But all highly-cured 
cheese must contain more or less of these odorous com- 
pounds as the result of the ripening process. 

The presence of fungi also affects the character of 
cheese, from their chemical action upon the nitrogenous 
portions of it. Mold is the principal agent of this char- 
acter which affects milk and cheese, and the particular 
variety is known as Penicillium crustaceu^n. This plant 
is very abundantly spread in dairies and wherever cheese 
is stored. It forms the greenish-blue mold which is 
seen in old cheese that has been kept in a rather damp 
place, and it also attacks and feeds upon bread and other 
moist substances which are rich in albuminous matters, 
viz., caseine, gluten, albumen, etc. The plant consists 
of fine, white, silky threads bearing upon their ends a 
mass of exceedingly small germs or spores which appear 
as fine dust. These spores are the germs of the plants 
and when dry are floated off in the air and scattered far 
and wide. The air contains myriads of these germs too 
small to be visible, and the dust everywhere contains 
them in enormous numbers. No place where the air 
enters is free from them. 

When any albuminous or nitrogenous liqn id is exposed 
to the air, some of these spores fall upon it and immedi- 
ately begin to grow, in time forming cells which become 



CHEESE MAKING. 363 

detached from the parent cell and go on increasing and 
forming other cells which separate and increase to an in- 
calculable extent. It is supposed by some chemists that 
rennet is highly charged with these germs, and being a 
nitrogenous substance they grow in it and increase with 
amazing rapidity. When rennet is mixed with warm 
milk these germs are carried all through the mass and 
each one becomes a center of most active growth which 
is encouraged by the heat. One effect of these germs is 
to produce acidity, and doubtless they are able to cause 
the coagulation of the milk and produce curd without 
producing apparent acidity; perhaps because of the effect 
of the coagulation being to neutralize as fast as it is pro- 
duced any acidity which may be formed. We know, how- 
ever, that acidity is only the work of time, and if it were 
not prevented by cooling and salting and pressing the 
cheese, by which moisture and air are expelled, the curd 
would soon become acid, next ferment, then decay, 
and finally putrefy. Putrefaction and destruction seem 
to be the ends and purposes of these germs in nature, and 
the whole art of the dairyman, from beginning to end, 
is a conflict with these abounding spores, to prevent or 
control their action and turn them to account m pro- 
ducing such effects as he desires and prevent any further 
action beyond that. 

The coagulation of the curd and its ripening, and the 
curing of the cheese, are all results of the action of these 
germs, aided by variations in temperature. And we can- 
not doubt that they may be so used as to very greatly 
affect the flavor of the cheese in its curing. This will be 
more particularly referred to in describing the in*ocesses 
by which the most highly valued kinds of cheese are 
cured and caused to acquire a certain texture, condition, 
and flavor. It is known that these fungi live and grow 
and feed at the expense of the nitrogenous substance of 
cheese, hence a cheese rich in caseine and poor in fat 



364 THE DAIEYMAN^S MANUAL. 

may be rendered richer in fat and soft in texture by the 
process of curing in which the abundant growth of these 
fungi or molds is turned to account. 

Another effect of these germs, probably of a specific 
kind, is to render cheese unwholesome and even poison- 
ous. That cheese is sometimes poisonous is a well 
known fact. But what causes the poison is not so 
well known. Eecent discoveries, however, lead us to be- 
lieve that a certain fungous growth in cheese is able to 
produce a substance which is poisonous to animals, caus- 
ing nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, with intense nervous 
depression, and this supposed poisonous product has 
been separated from the cheese and tested with similar 
results which occur from eating the cheese. Another 
supposition is, that the rennet is the origin of the trouble, 
and that the poison is introduced into the cheese by 
means of rennet that has become tainted or putrid. An 
analysis of the cheese has caused the separation of an 
offensive putrid animal matter which produces vomiting, 
and which seems to be exhausted or dissipated when the 
fermentation has passed away. It is an instructive ex- 
ample of the most injurious effects of any uncleanness 
whatever in the various operations of the dairy, and the 
absolute and imperative necessity for guarding most 
carefully every avenue of approach against injurious 
matter of every kind. 

FAN"CY CHEESE. 

Cheese, like all other products used us food, is made 
more attractive and salable by putting it into convenient 
forms, and making it of excellent quality and of desirable 
flavor for the many consumers who differ in taste and 
fancy. The standard American cheese weighing sixty 
pounds is too large for domestic use, and the smaller 
ones of about thirty pounds are still too heavy and last 
too long for ordinary domestic consumption. There are 



CHEESE MAKIITG. 365 

many varieties of small cheeses made, however, which find 
an excellent market, and there is room for more. The 
small round cheese known as Edam, for instance, which 
J weighs about four pounds, sells readily for about one 
dollar each ; the English dairy cheese in imitation of the 
favorite Gloucester cheese, flat and circular in shape, and 
weighing about twelve pounds, sells for twenty-five cents 
per pound ; the cylindrical cheeses made to imitate the 
English Wiltshire retails at twenty-two cents per pound; 
the American French Brie, a soft fat cheese, and the 
American Limburger, Schweitzer, Neufchatel, Gonda,and 
other highly- flavored kinds are also in good demand and 
sell at highly remunerative prices. Small home-made 
cheeses, too, are easily salable, and are exceedingly desir- 
able for domestic use. Such cheeses weigh about ten 
pounds each and sell easily for eighteen to twenty cents 
per pound. 

The process of making small cheeses of this kind is as 
follows : The morning's milk, well aired by pouring it 
through a strainer from one pail to another several times, 
by which it is reduced to about seventy or seventy-two 
degrees, is mixed with the evening's milk in a wooden 
vat or tub of convenient size. The temperature of the 
whole should then be raised to not less than seventy-eight 
or more than eighty-four degrees. The rennet is then 
added in the proportion of one liquid ounce to fifty quarts 
of milk, or at the rate of half a pint to 100 gallons. The 
rennet is made thus : The stomach of a sucking calf in 
which the milk is digested is emptied of its contents, 
well salted inside and out, and hung up to dry. The dry 
stomach is kept in this condition for two or three 
months or even twelve to eighteen months, during which 
time it becomes stronger and more" effective for its pur- 
pose the older it is. It is then steeped for three weeks 
in a quart of water in which salt has been dissolved until 
no more is taken up. The liquid is bottled for use and 



366 THE dairymaid's manual. 

the stomach is again rubbed with salt and hung up in a 
dry place for several months, when it will have regained 
its strength and is ready for a second use. This salt 
extract is the rennet that is to be used. The rennet is 
well mingled with the milk by stirring thoroughly, and 
in one hour the curd will have formed. If the curd is 
sooner formed and too much rennet has been used the 
cheese will have a sharp flavor and will be hard and 
tough. The curd is then cut with a long-bladed knife 
into small dice or squares not more than a quarter of an 
inch in size. A frame having small wires stretched the 
right distance apart is used for cutting the curd. This 
facilitates the separation of the whey from the curd. 
Some of the whey is drawn off after the curd has stood 
half an hour and is heated to nearly boiling. It is then 
turned on to the curd, which is stirred well until the 
whole is brought to a heat of 100 degrees. It remains in 
the hot whey for half an hour, when this is drawn off 
and the curd well broken with the hands, thrown into a 
heap in the center of the tub, covered with a cloth, and 
left for half an hour. It is broken up fine and again 
heaped and left half an hour more, and this is once more 
repeated, when it will be found slightly acid. 

The acidification is at once stopped by breaking the 
curd fine with the hand and spreading it to cool, when it 
is pressed by the hands in the molds and left under slight 
pressure for half a day. It is then broken u]^ fine once 
more, salted at the rate of two ounces of salt to seven 
pounds of curd, and is put into a hoop lined with a 
cloth and pressed under a screw or a lever, the pressure 
being at the rate of twelve pounds to every square inch 
of surface of the cheese. A cheese seven inches in 
diameter will require a pressure equal to 450 pounds. 
If a lever is used and the long arm is five times as long 
as the short one a weight of ninety pounds would have to 
be suspended at the end of the longer arm. The wrapper 



CHEESE MAKIN^G. 367 

is changed the second day and again on the third day. 
The mold is placed on a bench in which a small groove is 
cut to carry oS the whey which drains from the press. 
After three days' pressure the cheese is taken from the 
press, bandaged, and turned daily for several days. It 
should be kept in a room or dry cellar where the tem- 
perature is not more than sixty -five degrees. At the 
end of three months the cheese is ready for use, but 
may be kept in a cool place for several months longer 
without deterioration. To keep out the cheese maggot 
the cheeses may be wrapped in oiled paper, being first 
covered with melted beef suet well rubbed into the crust. 
The maggot is the larvae of a small fly which lays its 
eggs in cheese. Small cheeses may be made in this 
method by adding the curd of one day's making to that 
of the next day, and even a third day's curd may be 
grafted on to the second day's make. All that is re- 
quired is to slightly break up the surface of the cheese 
as it lies in the press and add the new curd to it in the 
mold and apply the pressure. One hundred pounds of 
milk (48 quarts) will make about ten pounds of cheese. 
Skimmed milk makes a very good cheese if care is 
taken not to overheat the milk, nor to use rennet too 
freely, nor to leave the curd to become too distinctly 
acid in the vat. For a small cheese all the material re- 
(juired consists of a cedar tub of the proper size, a low 
bench or table, and a lever or screw press of the simplest 
construction. 

Still smaller cheeses m.ay be made as follow^s: The 
fresh sweet milk is curdled by the liquid rennet made 
by steeping a fresh or dry salted stomach of a young 
unweaned calf or lamb in a quart of clear strained 
brine for three weeks. Of this liquid rennet one table- 
spoonful is enough for forty quarts of milk, and one 
teaspoonful for twelve or thirteen quarts.. Too much 
rennet will make the curd hard ; and as this kind of 



368 THE daikyman's manual. 

cheese should be soft, rennet should be used sparingly. 
About four quarts of milk will make a pound of cheese. 
The curd should be used fresh and before it has cooled. 
If it has cooled it should be warmed up to ninety de- 
grees. The curd of twelve or fifteen quarts may be 
made in a large tin pan. The rennet is stirred in the 
milk and the milk is left in a warm place for an hour, 
when the curd is set. A convenient method of setting 
the curd is to lay a square of fine muslin in the pan, 
securing the ends on the edge and pouring the milk 
into the muslin, when the curd is set the corners and 
edges of this are drawn together and tied, and the whole 
lifted out and hung up to drain. As soon as the whey 
is drained oft the curd is put into the molds. These are 
made of thin veneers of some sweet wood, as maple or 
beech, or of tin. They may be round, or any shape to 
suit the taste, and without bottom or top, about three 
inches by two, and one and one-half deep, or larger if 
desired. Mats made of rushes, or clean rye or wheat 
straw sewn together (figure 80), are used to rest the 
molds upon while the cheese is making, and the mats 
are placed upon a towel which absorbs the moisture. 
The inolds and their contents are turned daily for three 
days, and, if desired, are sprinkled with salt at each 
turning. 

The cheeses are ready for eating fresh in three days ; 
or, they may be taken to an airy dairy-house or cellar 
and kept for curing for six weeks or two months, being 
turned every day and laid upon a layer of sweet straw 
upon a lattice shelf. The curing process may be so man- 
aged as to give a great variety of flavors to the cheese. 
If mold gathers upon them it is scraped off occasionally. 
Cloths dipped in vinegar may be wrapped around the 
cheeses, or these may be covered with pulverized sweet 
herbs. Much ingenuity may be exercised in this way to 
vary the character of the cheese, and doubtless in time 



CHEESE MAKING. 



369 



some discoveries may be made throngli which one may 
hit upon a desirable market product that will furnish a 
profitable industry for the family. This is an unde- 
veloped possibility with us. In other countries millions 
of cheeses of this kind, but in great variety, are made 
and sold yearly, and some persons have made in past 
years a wide reputation which has descended with its 
comfortable profits to their children. 
A very rich cheese is made of pure cream, and eaten 




Fig. 79.— MOLD FOB SMALL CHEESE. Fig. 80. — MAT. 

while fresh. This is sold in the English and French mar- 
kets at a high price, and is also made for domestic use. 
The cream is taken from the milk as soon as it is thick, 
but while yet sweet, placed in a muslin cloth, and hung 
up to drain over a pan in uiiich. the drippings are 
caught. After hanging in this way in an airy, clean 
dairy-room for twenty hours, it becomes firm enough to 
be placed in the molds. The mold is a small wooden box 
or frame about five inches long, three wide, and one 

and a half thick, without bot- 
tom or top (figure 79). This 
is placed upon a layer of clean, 
smooth straw, and a mat of 
rushes, made as shown in figure 
80, is put under it. The cream is 
then placed in the mold, which 
is lined with a neatly fitting square piece of muslin 
folded at the corners; this is turned down over the cream 
and a second mat of rushes, which fits the mold, is laid 
upon it. A block of wood and a li^ht weight are placed 




Fis;. 81. — A CKEAM CHEESE. 



370 



THE BATRYMAK'S MAKUAL. 



on the mat to press the cream into the shape of the 
mold, where it remains until it has become set to the 
shape, which is in two or three hours. The cheese is 
marked on the top and bottom by the rushes of the mats, 
which give it a corrugated appearance (figure 81). It is 
fit for use as soon as it is set. When sent to market it 
is not removed from the molds until it is sold for use. 
No salt is used in the preparation ; this is added as it is 
eaten. The ordinary price of this cheese is the same as 
that of the best butter. When made for home use, and 
eaten fresh, it is a choice delicacy. It is sparingly made 
in the vicinity of New York, and sent to market wrapped 




Fig. 82. — DRAINING TABLE. 

in tinfoil. In making these cheeses it is best to thicken 
the cream by scalding the milk after it has stood in the 
pans for twelve hours. The pans are set on a stove until 
the cream '* crinkles," when they are returned to the 
shelves. In twelve hours more the cream is quite thick 
and is ready to go into the molds. 

Pot Cheese. — The simplest form of domestic cheese 
is the '* pot cheese." This is made of curd from sour 
skimmed milk gradually heated to 100 degrees, when the 
whey separates. Tlie curd is dipped into a square of 
thin muslin gathered into a loose bag and hung up on a 
convenient hook or to a peg purposely placed in a hole 
made for it near the edge of the dj-iiinin^ table (figure 



CHEESE MAKING. 371 

82). This is a commoD fcable with a white-wood or maple 
top, in which a few grooves are cut leading to a drain 
hole, as shown ; a pail placed under the drain will serve 
to catch the drip from the table. The cloth containing 
the curd hangs from the edge of the table and drains into 
the pail. The curd may be pressed slightly in small 
hoops and sprinkled with salt on both sides ; then placed 
on a mat made of green rushes sewn together, as shown 
at figure 80, and turned three or four times a day for 
four days and salted slightly once a day on each side. 
These cheeses may be kept for some weeks to cure, and 
will acquire a very fine flavor. The curd may be kept in 
the cloth for two or three days and each day an addi- 
tional quantity may be made until sufficient is gathered 
to make a cheese of several pounds, when the whole of 
the curd may be placed for a few minutes in a vessel of 
warm whey and then put to press together. Curd may 
be made in the cloth by laying this in the pan before 
the milk is curdled, and when the curd is formed gath- 
ering the edges together and tying them and lifting the 
whole out of the pan and hanging it to drain. The eurd 
is not then disturbed or broken, and when whole milk 
is used, as for better cheese, there is no risk of losing 
any of the cream with the whey as it drains off. 

A FiN-E Cheese.— A remarkably fine small cheese is 
made as follows : The newly-drawn milk is set away to 
cool after having been stramed twice and poured from 
one pail to another to air it thoroughly. After three 
hours it is slowly heated until the usual pellicle forms 
upon its surface. When the pellicle is firm enough to 
be lifted, the milk is removed and one teaspoonful of 
rennet is added and stirred in to twenty quarts of milk. 
The evening's milk maybe skimmed and warmed in a 
separate vessel, to the right point, and then mixed with 
the mornmg's milk, and the rennet added. Or, by keep- 
ing the milk in ice water in deep pails, it may be pre- 



372 



THE dairyman's MAN^UAL. 



served sweet for two or three days and then made into 
cheese ; or the curd may be kept as above mentioned and 
added to the new curd, in which case the rich quality of 
the cheese may be preserved. The milk may be curdled 
in a large jar or tin pail, or in several of them, and the 
curd may be carefully lifted with a common dipper or 
ladle, and placed at once in small cylindrical molds of 
tin (figure 83). Empty fruit cans, from which the top 
and bottom have been melted, and which have been cut 
down to four inches in length, will serve the purpose 
very well. From five to six hours . are required to form 
the curd. The molds are filled with the curd as they 
stand on the rush mats on the draining table before de- 



"yyyyyyyMMwy 




^n^f 



Fig. 83. 

TIN MOLD AND STRAW MAT. 



Fig. 84. 

FRAME FOR DRAINING CHEESE. 



scribed ; the whey gradually flows away, and in t\YO days 
the cheeses will have become firm enough for the mold 
to be lifted off from them. The cheeses are sprinkled 
with salt and left on the mats for three or four days, 
when they will be ready for the curing. This may be 
done on a shelf of narrow laths placed six inches apart. 
The cheeses are placed on a frame of laths shown at fig- 
ure 84, the frame being kept on the shelf, but removed 
to the table when it is necessary to salt and turn the 
cheeses. The cheese during the curing should be ex- 
posed to abundant currents of air, for it is on this airing 
that the effect of tlie curing depends. It is this system 
of curing which gives the exquisite flavor to the small 
foreign cheeses, as the Roquefort, the Camembert, and 



CHEESE MAKING. Sl^ 

others, and these are precisely the kinds that can be 
made very well in family dairies, or in other small dairies 
where a dozen cows are kept. 

The cheeses in such a process of curing require to be 
turned every second day for three or four weeks. If 
mold gathers on them it is wiped or scraped off, and 
when moisture is perceived upon the surface this stage 
of curing is completed. The cheeses and the frame are 
then removed to a dry, close cellar, where they are kept 
for one month, being turned every second day. The 
cheeses at this period will have shrunk to one inch in 
thickness and three in diameter. If they are kept after 
this they should be wrapped in paraffine paper or tin-foil. 
The delicious English Stilton cheeses, weighing from 
eight to twelve pounds, and six or seven inches in diam- 
eter by nine or ten in hight, are made in this manner, 
but with the addition of cream to the new milk. The 
milk of Jersey cows having twenty per cent of cream 
would make a very rich cheese, and if the curing were as 
well done it would equal this famed English cheese. 

The Stilton" Cheese is one specially suited to a small 
dairy. It is made in the following manner, to which all 
its peculiarity is due : A strong brine is made of salt and 
cold water, and a number of sweet herbs, thyme, hyssop, 
sweet briar, marjoram, dill and savory, tied in bunches, 
are steeped in it, with a few whole pepper-corns, for four 
da3^s, when the clear liquor is racked off. The calves' 
stomachs are steeped in this brine for five days, when 
the rennet is kept for use. The morning's new milk is 
mixed with the cream of the previous evening's milk in. 
a narrow deep pail. The milk is heated to ninety 
degrees and the rennet added. The pail is lined with a 
cloth, so that when the curd is formed it can be lifted 
out without breaking and placed in the mold. The 
curd is set in a warm, airy room. The mold is pierced 
with small holes to permit the whey to drain off without 



^74 T^E DAIRYMAN^S MANtfAL. 

pressure; after a short time a light pressure is made 
upon the curd. When the cheese has sufficient consist- 
ence it is removed from the hoop and bound with a cloth, 
which is changed and tightened every day as the cheese 
shrinks. It is turned and wiped daily. When the 
crust is firm the cloth is removed and the surface of the 
cheese is brushed twice a day for three months. It is 
then placed in the curing- room, where it is kept to ripen 
for a year or eighteen months. No salt is used in mak- 
ing this cheese. Veins of green and blue mold are 
formed in the cheese by thrusting into it thin skewers 
which have been rubbed with some old cheese in which 
the mold has been developed ; the mold spreads from 
these places through the body of the cheese, giving it a 
peculiar marbled appearance. 

Sage Cheese is another kind that may be made in a 
small dairy. This is also known as green cheese. For a 
cheese of eight pounds two large handfuls of green sage 
and half as much parsley and marigold leaves are bruised 
and infused over-night in a portion of new milk. The 
colored milk is added to one-third of the milk to be 
curdled, and this and the rest of the milk are curdled 
separately. The curds are drained, scalded, and broken 
in the usual manner of the Cheddar system, and the 
colored curd is then mixed, either evenly or in various 
shapes and devices, with the other curd as it is placed in 
the hoop. Much ingenuity is sometimes exercised in 
forming these devices by means of appropriate cutters 
and molds, and incorporating them with tlie white curd. 
The cheese is pressed and cured in the usual manner. 
Small green cheeses are made by bruising young sage 
leaves and spinach leaves in equal parts in a mortar and 
squeezing out the juice. The juice is added to the milk 
before the rennet is mixed, and the curd being formed, 
it is carefully broken very evenl}^, and put to press with 
gentle pressure for five or six hours. It is salted twice a 



day for five days and turned daily for forty days, when it 
is ready for use. This is a delicious cheese when made 
of rich milk and skillfully handled. It is made of small 
size, weighing less than one pound. 

The Edam Cheese is one of the most excellent and 
therefore popular of all the small kinds. 

Edam is a town of Holland, near the well-known 
Zuyder Zee, and about twelve miles northeast of Amster- 
dam. This town is the center of the manufacture of 
those nearly globular reddish-colored cheeses, which are 
largely imported into this country, and sold in all large 
cities at from twenty to thirty cents a pound. Edam 
cheese, designed specially for exportation to foreign 
countries, is carefully made and will keep several years. 
It is, therefore, a favorite cheese for use upon ships 
while making long voyages, and is almost the only 
cheese which is exported to India, China, and Australia. 
There is a demand for small cheeses of high flavor, 
and the Edam cheese to some extent fills this demand. 
It is a cheese of three or four pounds weight, with a 
sharp, almost pungent, yet agreeable flavor, and, as we 
have already said, will keep for years. The process of 
manufacture, as described by M. Le Senechal, director 
of the dairy of St. Angeau, in Holland, is as follows : As 
the peculiar purposes for which this cheese is destined 
forbid the use of too rich a milk, and the presence of too 
much cream or butter in the curd, it is usual at the 
hight of the season— that is, from the middle of August 
to the middle of October — to skim from one-third to a 
half of the milk ; at other times the whole milk is used. 
The milk, brought to a proper condition as to richness, is 
placed in the vat, and raised to a temperature of about 
ninety to ninety-two degrees in summer, and ninety-two 
to ninety-five degrees in winter, when the rennet is added 
in the proportion of a quarter of a pint to 100 quarts of 
milk, or somewhat less, according to circumstances. The 



^% 



THE dairyman's MANUAL. 



desired color, a light yellow, is jDroduced by the admix- 
ture of a portion of annatto, the quantity depending upon 
the season, the richness of the milk, the quality of the 
pasture, and other incidental circumstances, which the 
skilled dairyman so well understands. The usual quan- 
tity is a teaspoonful of a liquid preparation of annatto 
to a quarter of a pint of rennet. The liquid annatto 
used in Holland is about the same as that used in the 




Fig. 85.— PRESSING INTO MOLDS. 



New York factories. The rennet and coloring matter 
having been added to the milk, it is stirred for one 
minute and left to rest. 

As soon as the curd is thoroughly set, it is cut into 
small fragments with a curd-knife made of a number of 
fine wires fixed in a frame. This is done very carefully, 
lest the cream in the curd might escape into the whey 
and be lost. The curd is then gathered into a mass and 
freed from the whey, after which it is pressed by the 



CHEES'E MAKINO. 



877 



hands into the molds, as shown in figure 85. In this 
process the workman tills each hand with curd and 
presses it together, reducing it to a soft cake, which he 




throws with force into the bottom of the mold. He 
repeats this process uniil the mold is filled, when the 
mass of curd is pressed together and taken out, and re- 




versed three or four times until it is compact. The 
small holes at the bottom of the mold are kept clean to 
permit the whey to drain off. As soon as the cheese is 
sufficiently pressed Avith the hands it is taken from the 
mold and plunged into a bath of hot whey (122°) for 
two minutes. It is then again pressed in the mold and 
shaped, wrapped" in a cloth, replaced in the mold and 
pressed (figure 86). The cheese remains in the press 
for one or two hours in the winter, six or 
seven hours in the spring, and twelve hours 
in the summer. After coming from the 
press the cheese is put in the salting mold 
(figure 87). This gives the cheese its final 
Fig. 87. shape. The cheeses are sprinkled with salt 
daily for ten days while in these molds, and 
are frequently turned to drain, the whey passing off to 
the draining table through a hole in the mold. 

After this stage the cheeses are dipped in moist salt, 
Tviped dry, and placed upon the drying shelves to cure. 
The shelves are arranged as seen in figure 88, and the 
cheeses are placed upon them in regular order, according to 
their age. Here they remain three months, being turned 
every day the first month, every second day the second 
month, and once a week during the third month. At the 
end of twenty-four to thirty days they are dipped in a 
bath of tepid water (about sixty-six to seventy degrees), 
washed, brushed, and set to dry in an open place. When 
perfectly dry they are replaced upon the shelves. Fifteen 
days afterwards they are again washed, dried, and greased 
with linseed oil, when they are returned to the shelves, 
where they remain until sold for home consumption. 
When prepared for exportation, they undergo some fur- 
ther processes, to give them a lighter color upon the 
outside, and also to preserve them for a longer period. 
They are first scraped smooth with a sharp knife, then, 
for the English and American markets, they are rubbed 



GfiEESE MAKlKG. 



370 



With a mixture of linseed oil and annatto, which gives 
them a deep orange color. These cheeses are now largely 
made in this country and are sold for about one dollar 
each at retail. They are made in precisely the manner 




described, and are not to be distinguished from the Hol- 
land made cheeses in flavor or appearance. 

The Neufchatel Cheese is an exceedingly popular 
small cheese in the markets of our large cities. It is the 
American imitation of the French Xeufchatel. The 
best of these cheeses are made and ripened with great 
care. They are usually made from whole milk, which 



380 The daihyman^s makual. 

immediately after being drawn is strained, into crocks and 
treated with rennet. The crocks are then placed in 
boxes, which are coyered. with woolen cloth. After havina: 
stood forty-eight hours the crocks are emptied into a 
basket lined with a clean white cloth, and standing over 
a trough to drain. After twelve hours the corners of 
the cloth are folded, closely over the curds, which thus 
enveloped are placed, within a press and left for twelve 
hours. They are then put into a strong linen cloth, in 
which they are thoroughly kneaded and rubbed in every 
part until the caseous and. buttery parts are perfectly 
mixed and made into a homogeneous paste. If this paste 
is too soft the cloth is changed until the surplus moisture 
is withdrawn. If it is too hard and dry more curds are 
added from that of the next milking (which is now drain- 
ing). The mold, which is open at both ends, is then 
rather more than filled with the paste. It is held upright 
over a table with the left hand, while the top is patted 
down with the palm of the right hand so as to completely 
fill the whole mold. The surplus is then cut away, and 
the little cheese is pushed out from the mold. 

The cheese, after molding, is dusted on the two ends 
with very fine and dry salt, that accidentally remaining on 
the hands being sufficient for salting the sides. It is 
then stood on a board, not touching its neighbors, and 
left to drain for twenty-four hours. The cheeses of this 
making are then carried to the store-room, where they 
are laid on their beds of clean straw (on shelves), being 
placed in uniform rows crosswise of the straw, and lying 
about the distance of their diameter from each other. 
Two days later they are turned, each one being rolled half 
w^ay over; this brings them on to dry places in the straw. 
Three days later they are turned up on end and stood oii 
the space between the original roAVS. After five days 
they are reversed and placed on their other ends, and 
here they stand five days longer. They are now six- 



CHEESE MAKII^G. 381 

teen days old, and have become somewhat dry, a skin 
being formed over them. If they are not now coated 
with a slight blue mold they are again reversed and 
allowed to stand longer. Wlien this mold has apjoeared 
they are taken to a dry, cool room, where they are turned 
(end for end) every five days, and they are watched (with 
much care as to atmospheric conditions) until they are 
well coated with a reddish globular mold. If the pro- 
cesses have all been well managed this mold will appear 
uniformly on all sides, and the ripening will be equal 
throughout. After this they are turned less frequently, 
first once in ten days and then once a fortnight. At the 
end of three months they should be sold, as soon after 
this time they will begin to run. 

Well-made Neufchatel cheese should be a homogeneous 
paste, free from granulation, and spreading smoothly like 
butter. 

The care and close attention which the manufacture 
demands justifies the high price that the well-made 
article brings in the European markets — a price which 
the more simply made American imitation can not 
command. 

In the manufacture of this class of cheeses quality 
should be made the first consideration. The French call 
this class of cheeses " fromages de consistence molle/^ or 
simply '' soft cheeses." They should be of a buttery con- 
sistence, with a pleasant sharp flavor and an ammoniacal 
odor, but not so pronounced as that of the Limburger. 
The rich buttery consistence is procured by the addition 
of some of the cream of other milk of the previous even- 
ing, and a little more rennet is then used. The low 
temperature, the small quantity of rennet, and the long 
slow curing, with the effect of the mold, all aid ni pro- 
curing this desirable quality. American imitators of the 
French cheese would do well to imitate equally well the 
careful French methods, 



382 THE dairyma:n^'s makual. 

Brie Cheese, another excellent soft French cheese, 
is made in three or four factories at least in the United 
States. One of these is in Orange County, New York, 
and the product is equal to that of the French dairies. 
There are the fine, the half cream, and the skim Brie 
cheeses. The fine is the only kind made here. The pro- 
cess is at first precisely like that of the Neufchatel cheese. 
The new warm milk is treated Avith rennet as soon as 
drawn, sufficient rennet being used to get the curd in an 
hour or a little more. The mold is about a foot in diam- 
eter and three inches in depth. The mold rests on a mat 
of rushes placed on a plank form. As soon as the curd 
is formed it is dipped out of the vat with a strainer dish, 
without breaking it, and the mold is moved to a drain- 
ing table for the whey to run off. As soon as the curd 
has become firm enough, it is taken from the mold, 
smoothed with a knife, and put on the salting table, where 
it is sprinkled with fine salt. The next day it is turned 
and salted on the other side. If the cheese gives way it 
is strengthened by a band of zinc placed around it until 
it becomes firmer, and to turn them easily they are laid 
upon a frame of osiers with another on top. They are 
turned daily from ten to fourteen days. They are cured 
in a dry airy room, where they become covered with blue 
mold with which the red spores are mingled, and after six 
weeks they are ready for sale. 

The best cheeses are refined in the following manner. 
They are packed in casks in layers with oat straw be- 
tween them, in moist cellars or damp stone rooms, at a 
temperature of not more than fifty-five to sixty degrees, 
where they remain until they become soft, mellow, and 
exceedingly unctuous in texture, and submit easily to the 
pressure of the finger. They are then in the right con- 
dition for consumption, possessing a rich piquant flavor 
and soft creamy consistence much liked by a certain 
cl^ss of consumers of cheesQ, 



CHEESE MAKING. 383 

The Roquefort Cheese is an example of a mode of 
curing by which a most exquisite flavor is developed in an 
ordinary curd by means of fungous growth both within 
and without the cheese. The manufacture has been for 
many years under a sort of associated system much simi- 
lar to our factory system, and takes precedence in point 
of time to ours by a good many years, the milk being 
sold to the company — which owns the caves where the cur- 
ing is carried on — by some of the farmers, others sell the 
curd, and still others the new cheese ; the curing, being 
the most important part of the manufacture, is carried on 
by a few individuals or companies. 

The milk used is taken from ewes — a race of sheep 
being bred in the locality having extraordinary milking 
qualities — as well as from cows ; but the quality of the 
cheese seems to be quite independent of the milk used. 
The evening's milk is strained into a copper cauldron 
and heated slowly to a point never equal to boiling heat, 
but varying according to the judgment of the operator 
in regard to the season, the weather, the pasture, and 
the quality of the milk. The richer the milk the less 
heat is applied. The heated milk is put into widely 
flaring pots for the cream to rise and is skimmed in the 
morning. The morning's milk is put directly into the 
cauldron with the evening's milk and heated to the same 
temperature as the evening's milk was. The rennet is 
then added in the proportion of one tablespoonf ill for 120 
pounds of milk — a little more than fifty quarts. The 
curd is cut and broken in the usaal manner and the whey 
is separated. The whey is dipped out of the vat with a 
flat dish-shaped dipper, which is pressed into the curd 
until no more can be taken up, when the curd is broken 
up with the hands and put into the molds. 

The molds are of glazed earthenware of a flat cylindri- 
cal shape, pierced with holes, and are about eight and a 
half inches in die^meter ^nd three md a half in hight^ so 



384 THE DAlKYMAI^r'S MANUAL. 

as to make a cheese of about seven pounds in weight green, 
and five to six pounds when cured. The whey drains off 
through these holes and from the bottom of the mold. 
About one-third of the depth of the molds is filled in 
with the curd and this is pressed down. The surface is 
then lightly sprinkled with a preparation of blue mold 
made in this way: A bread is made of equal parts of flour 
of wheat and barley, leavened strongly with one part of 
yeast for twenty-three parts of the bread, and one quart 
of vinegar. The bread is then raised and baked crisply. 
It is kept in a warm place until it is covered with green 
mold {Penicillium glaiicum) which is suffered to spread all 
through the bread, the soft part of which is then dried 
and crushed to a fine powder. The incorporation of this 
powder sows the seed (the spores) of the mold, and this 
spreads during the curing all through the mass of the 
cheese in numerous yeins. When this mold assumes a 
blue color it is taken as an indication that the cheese is 
of superior quality. The mold is thus filled with curd in 
three layers, with the fungus spores sown between them, 
the last layer projecting considerably above the level of 
the mold, so that when the pressure is aj)plied the mold 
may be exactly filled to an even level. 

A second mold is filled in the same manner and placed 
u]Don the surface of the first one ; a leaden plate is then 
laid upon the second mold to furnish the pressure, which j 
gradually forces out the whey and fills the molds even 
with the curd. The filled molds are then placed on 
benches having channels cut in them to drain off the 
wliey, and the cheeses remain until no more whey escapes 
from them, which is during three or four days, being- 
turned twice daily. The air of this apartment is kept 
moist by means of pans of hot water frequently renewed. 
When ready for the change the cheeses are taken out of 
the molds and moved to the drying house. This house 
is dry and airy, and the windows are covered with wire or 



. CHEESE MAKTKG. 385 

cloth gauze to keep out flies. The tables are covered 
with linen cloths, upon which the cheeses are laid to dry, 
and are turned evening and morning. In three days 
they are taken to the curing cellars or caves. 

The village of Eoquefort is built upon an elevated 
plain 2,700 feet above the general level, and is underlaid 
with limestone rock which is honeycombed with caves 
and fissures. A constant current of cold moist air 
passes through these caves, and it is in these that the 
curing cellars are made. No light of day enters them, 
and by means of cross-walls and apertures the air cur- 
rents are directed through the corridors Avhere the 
cheeses are stored. At this point the cheeses amount in 
weight to eighteen per cent of the milk used. The tem- 
l^erature of these caves ranges from forty-five to fifty-five 
degrees and the moisture is sixty degrees, on a scale of 
w^hich a hundred degrees is saturation. 

The first apartment in the caves is the weighing-room, 
where green cheeses are received from the farmers (pa- 
trons), for the purpose of curing, by the owners of the 
caves, who purchase them and cure them with their own 
product. The cheeses are carefully tested and are then 
placed on the ground, which is covered with straw, and 
remain twelve hours to cool down to the low temperature 
of the caves. They are then removed to the salting-room. 
A handful of salt is sj^read over one face of the cheese 
and this is placed on the ground ; another is salted on 
one face and placed on the first, and a third is treated in 
the same way and set upon the second one. In twenty- 
four hours the cheeses are reversed and salted as before 
on the other faces. Forty-eight hours afterwards the 
ciiceses are well rubbed with a coarse cloth to make the 
salt penetrate and are replaced in piles of three. They 
are then left for two days, when tliey are returned to the 
weighing-room and are passed through two operations 
which are called the '* raclagc'^ (trimming). The first 



386 



THE daieyma:n^'s manual. 



of these operations is to scrape off from the cheese with 
a knife a certain adhesive ghitinous matter which forms 
upon it during the salting ; the second is to remove a 




o 

< 

a 
< 

i 

36 

fci. 



thin slice of the crust of the cheese, which is preserved 
for sale as an article of food for poorer consumers. This 
sells at about five cents per pound (figure 89). The 



CHEESE MAKI^-G. 



387 



cheeses are now sorted into three qualities, having so far 
progressed in the curing as to enable the operators to 
class them in this way. After this sorting the cheeses 



op' 

O 



o 




are returned to the curing cellars and put up in piles of 
three as before, the most solid on the straw-covered floor 
and the softer ones on these. In this state they remain 



388 THE pairyman's manual. 

for eight days. They are then taken down and laid out 
singly without touching each other (figure 90). At this 
stage they become yellowish or reddish m color. When 
they become covered with a white mold an inch or two 
thick they* undergo a second ''raclage." The moldy 
substance is sold for feeding to pigs. In ten or twelve 
days after, this operation is repeated; the finer the 
cheeses the more quickly they are covered with the mold 
and prepared for it. In thirty or forty days more, the 
first made cheeses are ready for sale, as they are not con- 
sidered suitable for long keeping. The later made cheeses 
are selected for the most thorough curing. These are 
made in May and June and are not finally disposed of 
until September to December. These cheeses undergo 
the operation of ''raclage" several times and develop 
first a red mold and finally a dense blue mold. During 
the curing the cheeses lose twenty-five per cent of their 
weight. When the curing is completed the best cheeses 
are wrapped in tinfoil ; the second quality are packed 
naked in baskets, each cheese being surrounded with a 
thin wooden band. Only the finest, wrapped in tinfoil, 
are imported to this countr}-, Avhere they retail for fifty 
to sixty cents a pound. 

Camembert is one of the finest flavored and richest 
of the small French cheeses. It was 
first made by a dairyman named Paynel 
in 1791, soon became popular, and his 
family are to-day engaged in making 
this same cheese, along with several 
neighbors, the annual sales amounting 
^^' ' to very near two million cheeses. Two 

quarts of milk are used to make a cheese, which weighs a 
little over three ounces when it is cured and ready for 
sale". The wholesale price is about one dollar and eighty 
cents per dozen, and they retail at twenty cents each. 
The method of manufacture is as follows: The milk, 




CfiEESE MAKIKG. 



389 



drawn with extreme care to preserve perfect purity all 
through the feeding and care of the cows, is taken at once 
to the dairy, where it is set aside in jars for three hours. 
The thin cream which has risen is skimmed off and 







used for making an extremely delicately-flavored bntter, 
which sells by the confectioners in Paris at a high price. 
One hundred quarts of milk furnish only one pound of 
butter. The milk is then heated until a skin forms on 



390 



THE DAIRYMAK*S MAKUAL. 



the surface, and when this begins to shrink or *' crinkle" 
the rennet is added to the milk at the rate of one spoon- 
ful to twenty quarts of milk. After six hours the curd 
is dipped out of the jar — which is of glazed earthenware, 
holding about three gallons— into small, tin molds, which 
are about four and three-quarter inches (twelve centi- 
meters) in width and hight, open at both ends, and 
resting each on a small mat of rushes sewed together 




Fig. 93.— DKTTNG ROOM. 

(figure 91). This work is done, in Mons. Payners dairy, 
in a stone building, furnished as represented at figure 92. 
In two days the curd becomes firm enough to be taken 
from the molds ; no pressure is used. Then they are 
sprinkled with salt, and placed on the tables for three or 
four days. They are next carried in baskets, upon tin 
gratings or frames which fit the baskets, to the drying- 
room, where the frames with the cheeses on them are 



CHEESE MAKING. 



aoi 



placed on the shelves (figure 93). Here they are turned 
every two days for three weeks, and exposed to currents 
of air, which are made to flow in various directions by 



Cfq* 




means of movable window frames, seen in the engraving. 
The cheeses are thus aired in turn, until all have been 
equally exposed to the currents. They are then removed 
to a second dry house {seclioir), where they are more ex- 




392 THE dairymak's makual. 

posed to the air, and in time begin to sweat and become 
moist. When this occurs, they are removed on trays to 
the finishing cellar {cave de perfection), (figure 94), which 
is furnished with shelves and glazed windows, the air 
being, rigidly excluded. They remain here twenty to 
thirty days, and are turned every two 
days as before. After this they are 
finished, and appear as shown at fig- 
ure 95, being then wrapped in paper, 
*^* . ' and packed in baskets containing 

ninety cheeses, for shipment to market. They are now 
about four inches in diameter, and one and one-fourth in 
hight. An unusually fine quality sells in Paris for twenty- 
five cents each. The largest consumption is in that city, 
which annually takes over a million of these cheeses. 
Oke Hukdred HiKTS TO Cheese Makers, which in- 
clude the whole art of conducting a factory successfully, 
are here given, not for the instruction of experienced 
dairymen, but rather as reminders of what is so apt to be 
forgotten, and as a code of rules for younger practitioners 
who have not yet mastered all the secrets of their art. 

1. Teach your patrons how to produce milk of the best 
quality by asking them questions and giving them advice. 

2. Print the following ''Ten Points for the Instruc- 
tion of Dairymen,''^ and furnish each of your patrons 
with a copy every three months. 

3. Feed your cows on clean food only. Never use 
sour food. 

4. Be sure to give only clean pure water. 

5. Clean the cows before milking. 

6. Strain the milk carefully immediately after milking. 

7. Air the milk well while straining, holding the 
strainer above the pails. 

8. Never use a greasy cloth, brush or utensil. 

9. Empty whey from the cans immediately on arriving 
at home, and clean the cans without delay. 



CHEESE MAKING. 393 

10. Never dog, or run, your cows. 

11. Never use the milk of a sick or gargety cow. 

12. Scour the cans with a hard brush, rinse them 
thoroughly and air them well. 

13. Examine the milk cans once at least every week. 

14. Look closely to the opening of the can into the 
milk conductor and examine the conductor every day. 

15. When tainted milk is received, lose no time in 
visiting the dairy and finding the cause and removing it. 

16. Clean out the water pans every week. 

17. One day in the week have a general examination 
and cleaning. 

18. Use brushes for cleaning, and keep cloths perfectly 
clean and s\Veet. 

19. Air "the brushes and cloths thoroughly, and dry 
them once a day. 

20. Milk in good condition is set at eighty-four to 
eighty-six degrees. 

21. When milk is slightly acid set it at ninety to 
ninety-six degrees, according to degree of acid. 

22. Use only rennet of known strength. 

23. Never use impure rennet. 

24. Dilute the coloring to one gallon for every vat of 
milk. Stir the coloring in thoroughly. 

25. Carefully gauge the rennet to the condition of the 
milk. 

26. Early in the season, when cows are fresh, more 
rennet is required than later. 

27. The more rennet is used the moister will be the 
cheese. 

28. The moister the cheese the more quickly it cures. 

29. The first action of rennet is to bring the curd ; the 
second is the curins^ of the cheese. 

30. As much rennet as will bring the curd at eighty- 
six degrees in twenty-five to thirty minutes will make a 
quick curing cheese. 



394 THE DAIRYMAN S MAKUAL. 

31. Forty-five minutes should be allowed for bringing 
the curd in summer and fall chesse, with good milk. 

32. Higher temperature than eighty-six degrees pro- 
motes the action of the rennet. 

33. Sour milk should have more rennet, proportionate 
to the acidity. 

34. Dilute the rennet to one gallon for a vat of milk. 

35. Thorough stirring in of the rennet is required to 
cause even coagulation. 

36. Let the curd become fairly firm before cutting. 

37. Use the horizontal knife first, lengthwise ; when 
the whey has separated use the perpendicular knife 
crosswise. 

38. A quick curd is to be cut very fine. 

39. Cut quick, so as not to push the curd. * 

40. After cutting stir gently and slow. 

41. Clear the sides and bottom of the vat from adher- 
ing curd. 

42. Do not use heat until fifteen minutes after begin- 
ning to stir. 

43. Use hot water for heating, lest you scorch the curd. 

44. Heat gradually; rise one degree in not less than 
four minutes. 

45. Heat a quick curd as soon as it is stirred, and as 
fast as possible. 

46. Stir until the curd is firm. 

47. Draw off the whey when the hot iron shows fine 
hairs one-qnarter of an inch long. 

48. Keep dry curd at a temperature above ninety-two 
degrees. 

49. Let the curd become solid only when it is suffi- 
ciently dry and firm. 

50. Turn and pack close until the curd is in layers 
four or five deep. 

51. At this stage permit no whey to remain- on the 
curd. 



CHEESE MAKI^a. 395 

52. Test the curd frequently, by touch, smell, taste 
and appearance. 

63. Curd is ready for cutting and salting when it feels 
mellow, soft and unctuous ; 

54. When it smells slightly acid ; 

55. When it has a brisk, sharp, but not sour, taste; 

56. And when it appears somewhat fibrous in texture 
instead of flaky. 

57. A porous open curd should be soured more before 
it is cut and salted. 

58. A moist or soft curd should be cut earlier. 

59. Stir a soft moist curd some time before adding 
salt. 

60. A soft moist curd, and a porous open one, should 
both be well aired by stirring before salting. 

61. Air and stir curd, as a rule, five or ten minutes 
after grinding before salting. 

62. Use the salt which you have proved to be the best. 

63. Use a small mill and grind the salt extremely fine. 

64. April and May cheese requires one and three-quar- 
ter pounds of salt per 1,000 pounds of milk. 

65. Summer cheese requires two to two and three- 
quarter pounds of salt per 1,000 pounds of milk. 

66. An increase of salt is required when the milk was 
sour, or an excess of rennet has been used. 

67. Salt retards curing and corrects acidity. 

68. Twenty to forty-five minutes should elapse after 
salting before going to press. 

69. Undue delay at this stage causes loss of flavor. 

70. Press continuously; at first light, then gradually 
heavier. 

71. Clean the curd mill every day. 

72. A foul curd mill inevitably produces bad flavors. 

73. Use loose-fitting followers and canvas rings. 

74. Pure water only should be used when bandaging 
cheese. 



396 THE dairyman's MAHUAI. 

75. The cheese most easily acquires bad flavors at this 
stage. 

76. Thoroughly clean curd sinks every day; air racks, 
at night. 

77. Use racks with slats having both edges beveled. 

78. Be sure to use perfectly clean cloths in the sink. 
Soak in a strong alkaline solution to clean from grease. 

79. Scrub hoops and press tables frequently; wash with 
hot water dailv. 

80. Turn the cheese daily. 

81. Do not remove press cloths for two weeks. 

82. Finish the cheese to a perfect shape before remov- 
ing it to the curing-room. 

83. Curing is the result of digestive fermentation; 
seventy degrees is the most favorable temperature for it. 

84. The higher the temperature the more rapid .the 
curing. 

85. Spring cheese requires seventy to seventy-five 
degrees. 

86. Summer cheese requires sixty-five to seventy de- 
grees only. 

87. Keep three accurate thermometers in different 
parts of the curing-room and consult them frequently. 

88. Keep the curing-room clean, the air pure, and the 
tables free from grease. 

89. Keep the flies out of the curing-room by every. 
possible precaution. 

90. Turn the cheese on the tables every day for three 
weeks. 

91. Use warm pure grease when the cheese is stripped 
of the press cloths and carefully fill every crack smoothly. 

92. Grease summer cheese before boxing them ; use 
scale boards before the grease dries. 

93. Use two scale boards on each end of the cheese. 

94. Weigh each cheese carefully. Mark the weight on 
the inside of the box. 



MILK DAIRTI1S"G. 397 

95. Use strong boxes to fit the cheese tight and level, 
and with close-fitting covers. 

96. Avoid unclean wagons or cars in shipping cheese. 

97. Avoid the very least uncleanliness in every detail 
about the factory, especially in the disposal of the whey. 

98. Keep an exact record of each day's work. 

99. Finish every day's work completely, leave none of 
it for the next day. 

100. Discipline yourself to observe all these rules, and 
consider the breach of any one a damage and a loss to be 
avoided by the most scrupulous exactness. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
MILK DAIRYING. 

The production of milk for sale is a business of very 
large extent. The quantity of milk sold and used for 
domestic purposes by others than farmers is unquestion- 
ably equal to one-tenth as much as that used in butter 
and cheese making". With six million farmers "who pro- 
duce milk in our whole population, and whose families 
comprise thirty million persons, there are as many more 
in the United States who use .milk. Estimating one quart 
as the daily consumption of each family of five persons, 
there must be at least a million cows kept for the pro- 
duction of milk for sale. This business is always in- 
creasing with the growth of cities and towns which 
require systematic supply. Moreover, the business is 
somewhat intricate, and it is quite difficult to keep the 
milk in good condition under the unfavorable methods 
of transportation and distribution, which are very much 
against the interests of the producer and in favor of the 
distributor. There is great need for persons engaged in 
this brajich of dairying to fully understand the best 



398 THE dairyman's manual. 

system of producing milk, the methods of caring for it 
until it reaches the consumers, and of the disposal of it. 
These three considerations are of the greatest importance 
and deserve the closest study and most careful practice, 
because the success of the business depends upon it. 

The cows most desired for this business are the half 
bred Shorthorns, or grade Holstein-Friesians. Many 
breeders of line pure bred Holsteins — which are large 
milkers and whose milk is excellent for this purpose — de- 
•vote their herds to the production of milk for sale, find- 
ing a good demand for the calves, which sell at prices 
which repay the cost of rearing tliem. Some Ayrshire 
breeders do the same with equal profit. But, as a rule, 
itis best to attend to one thing at a time in business, and 
the milk dairyman will find the best cows for his use to 
be the grade Shorthorns, Holsteins, or Ayrshires — the 
first being the best cattle for beef, fattening very easily 
and rapidly when the yield of milk is falling below a 
profitable point, which is from eight to ten quarts a day; 
the second making fair beef, and the third being fairly 
good beef cattle for local consumption. Each kind is 
a good milking cow and produces a heavy, well-flavored 
and dense milk. 

The feeding of cows for this purpose is especially 
important, because as competition reduces the price of 
milk to the lowest point, the feeding must be both 
cheap and productive. A study of the characters and 
kinds of foods, and the methods of growing the most 
productive feeding crops, is of great use in this respect, 
and a reference to preceding chapters in which these 
subjects are treated will be instructive. The practice of 
large milk dairymen who have long experience in this 
business near the city of New York, is given in the fol- 
lowing description of a milk-barn and business in which 
200 cows are kept. The farm is located about thirty 
miles from the city of New York and the owner jirocures 



MILK DAIRYING. 



399 



his COWS from Ohio chiefly, where he can obtain good 
grade Shorthorns. These cows are kept in a barn of 



i^I<^. 




which figure 96 was engraved from a drawing made by 
the author on a visit to the farm. It is situated upon 



400 THE dairymaid's manual. 

the side of a hill, iu an excavation of which the base- 
ment stable is placed. The basement is of stone, and 
nine feet high. The barn is twenty feet high above the 
basement, eighty feet long and twenty-eight feet wide. 
The yard is surrounded with a stone wall, and a manure 
pit is dug under the center of the building, large enough, 
to back a wagon into. No manure is kept in the yard, 
which is thus always clean and neat; but it is raked into 
a wagon, which is backed into the pit to receive it every 
morning, and carted away. Nothing is thus left to taint 
the air around the stable, and to vitiate the purity of the 
milk. At the left of the yard, adjoining the stable, is a 
spring-house, in which the milk is rapidly cooled, and 
kept cool until the time for shipment. Behind the 
spring-house, and immediately at one end of the barn, is 
the pit for storing brewers' grains, of which a portion 
of the feed consists. These grains, purchased from the 
breweries, contain a large portion of corn meal, which is 
now extensively used in brewing, and are both nutritious 
and wholesome food. It is a mistake to -suppose that 
fresh brewers' grains are unhealthful or improper food, or 
tend to produce any but the best of milk. Grains are 
simply crushed malt which has been deprived of a part 
of its sugar by the process of mashing, and contain, when 
in a dry condition, only very little less milk-producing 
nutriment than the barley from which they were made, 
the loss, besides the sugar, being chiefly starch or carbo- 
naceous matter. The daily ration given to the cows upon 
these milk farms is usually half a bushel of grains, in 
which there is a considerable portion of corn meal, and 
six to eight quarts of dry corn meal, with as much hay 
as they care to eat. AVhere no grains are fed the ration 
is eight to twelve quarts of corn meal with hay. The 
pit in which the grains are stored is a deep cellar walled 
v.ith stone and cement and covered with a roof. A door 
from tlio bottom of the pit opens into the stable, and 



MILK DAIRYII^G. 401 

permits the removal of the grains as may be needed. In 
this pit several thousand bushels of grains can be stored, 
and being packed down closely, and kept from access of 
air, may be preserved in good order for months. It is 
upon a simikir plan to this that farmers are now preserv- 
ing their corn fodder in a green state in silos until the 
new crop comes in. The basement has four doors and is 
amply lighted and ventilated. The floor is divided in 
the center by a wide feed-passage, upon each side of 
which are stanchions to hold the cows. There are no 
feed troughs, but the feed is placed upon the floor be- 
fore each cow. The stanchions are made of oak, are 
self-fastening by means of an iron loop, which is lifted 
as the stanchion is closed, by its beveled end, and falls 
over it, holding it securely. The space between the 
stanchions for the cow's neck is six inches. Each cow 
has a space of three feet, and there are no stalls or parti- 
tions between them. The floor upon which the cows 
stand is four and a half feet wide, behind this is a man- 
ure gutter eighteen inches-wide and six inches deep, and 
behind the gutter a j^assage of three feet and six inches ; 
in all giving a space of fourteen feet from the center 
of the feed passage to the walls upon either side. Hay- 
chutes are made in the floors, by which hay is thrown 
down into the feedrpassage. These also serve for venti- 
lation, in connection Avith the cupolas upon the roof. 

In the summer the cows are pastured, but get their 
usual ration of corn meal, and when the grass begins to 
fail are fed green crops cut and carried to the yard, 
or into feeding l^ts, where they are kept. The principal 
crop fed is corn fodder, grown in drills and cultivated 
as well as if planted for grain. The main crop on these 
farms is grass for pasture and hay, and Western corn is 
purchased for feeding. The reason for this is that corn 
is thus procured more cheaply and easily than it can be 
grown here, while hay is bulky to transport and cannot be 



402 THE dairyman's manual. 

bought profitably. Coarse feed should always be grown 
in preference to grain food, as this can be procured out- 
side of the farm, while the other cannot. 

Partial soiling is indispensable for feeding the cows on 
a milk farm, for a regular supply of milk must be had 
every day, and this can only be kept up by liberal feed- 
ing of succulent fodder after the grass fails. Ensilage 
is also a most useful resource, as it provides succulent 
food in winter. Where a satisfactory supply of brewers' 
grains, glucose meal, and malt sprouts can be procured 
cheaply these will take the jjlace of ensilage and can be 
preserved in the same wa}^ With these foods hay must 
be fed as a complementary fodder and the two kinds will 
be sufficient for all purposes without ensilage. As to the 
rest, reference may be made to j)revious chapters for 
special information in regard to the exigencies of the 
business. 

The management of the milk is of the greatest impor- 
tance, and this is the point in the conduct of the business 
whCTe most of the losses and failures are made. Every 
attention should be given to insure the most perfect 
cleanliness, the comfort of the cows in hot weather, 
and to cooling the milk as soon as it has been drawn 
from the cow. The last-mentioned subject is worthy of 
special consideration. It has been previously stated that 
v/hen milk is cooled to a low temperature and then 
warmed it sours very quickly. The sugar of the milk 
changes to lactic acid by an internal decomposition in 
which the atoms merely cliange their combination with- 
out any change of elements. This souring can go on in 
sealed bottles, when it is suj^posed to be quite safe from 
change, and the dairyman is much disappointed to find 
his agent comj^laining of the milk souring when he felt 
sure it was beyond all danger ; the very security he de- 
pended upon being the source from ^^hich the unex- 
pected mischief arises, 



MILK DAIRYING. -1-03 

The cooling of the milk then becomes a matter of par- 
amount importance. Ice water is too cold, and produces 
the very mischief it is intended to prevent. Fifty-five 
degrees is low enough, and sixty will do very well if the 
milk is not exposed to unusual risks in the transporta- 
tion. There are various methods of cooling milk. The 
most usual one is to put the cans, as soon as the milk has 
been strained into them, into a tank or pool of cool water, 
or into a well from which water is drawn for use and is so 
kept fresh and cool. An iron frame, in which the cans 
are placed, is lowered into the well by an ordinary wind- 
lass, and the cans are kejDt there from early morning, 
when the cow^s are milked, until night, when the milk 
is shipped. The evening's milk is treated in the same 
way, but is not mixed Vvdth the morning's milk. Milk 
is always shipped in the evening, so as to be ready for the 
early morning's delivery. As the cans often remain on 
the platform of the railroad depot for a considerable time 
before they are put on the cars, it is advisable to have 
a dry, clean blanket, conspicuously marked with the 
shipper's name, thrown over his cans ; and by making a 
suitable arrangement with the conductor of the milk 
train the cans may also be protected in the same way in 
the car, and thus arrive at their destination several de- 
grees cooler than if they had been unprotected. 

The great point to observe is not to cool the milk too 
low, and to cool it as soon as i^ossible after it is strained, 
airing it well by pouring it through the strainer raised 
above the pail. The deep-setting milk pails, eight or 
eight and a half inches in diameter, are convenient for 
cooling the milk in, and if the temperature is not lower 
than fifty-five degrees there will not be much cream rise 
during the day. To prevent the cream rising the milk 
should be stirred gently two or three times during the 
day. A tank of water, such as is described in a previous 
chapter, cooled to the right point by ice, is very suitable 



404 



THE DAIRYMAl!^ S MAKUAL. 



and convenient ; but a thermometer should be used to 
be sure the cooling is not below the safe point. 

The distribution of the milk by dairymen who have a 
route, or a number of customers, may be eased very 
much by simple methods of avoiding difficulties which 
cause much trouble at times. Souring of the milk pre- 
maturely is the principal difficulty. This may be avoided 
by thorough cleanliness in the utensils, which should be 
scrubbed with a stiff brush and cold water; soap should 
not be used, but a small quantity of a weak solution of 




Fig. 97. — BOX FOR MILK CANS. 

concentrated lye ; this will remove all remnants of sour 
milk, grease, or other impurities from the cans. Boiling 
water should then be used, and, finally, clear cold water 
to finish, after which the pails and cans should be in- 
verted on a bench in the open air, in a sunny airy place, 
and tilted so that the air can enter freely. 

Tlie routine of a milk route, as has been found sat- 
isfactory by the author, is as follows. The cows are 
milked at five o'clock in the morning, and the milk is 
immediately strained into the cans; twenty-quart ones 
are better than the larger ones, as thQ milk keeps in 



MILK DArRYIi;rG. 



405 



better condition in veiy hot or very cold weather. In 
very hot weather a glass jar or bottle filled with pounded 
ice may be hung in the cans to keep the milk cool; in 
cold weather the cans may be put in a box lined with 
woolen, felt, or quilting of wool, and a hot brick in each 
corner in a sheet-iron receptacle will prevent freezing of 
the milk (figure 97). AVben the weather in the ''hot 
season is very close and sultry, and there is da,nger of 
the milk souring, a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, or 
more as the case may be thought to need, may be dis- 





Fig. 98. Fig. 99, 

solved in a quart of the milk and the solution poured 
into the can. 

It will help the business very much if each customer is 
given a card on which is printed a few simi3le directions 
for caring for the milk.; for the most frequent complaints 
arise from want of judgment in taking care of the milk 
and to undue exposure to heat and impure air. These 
directions should be to the effect that the milk should 
be kept in a perfectly clean vessel and as soon as received 
sliould be heated to nearly boiling and then kept in a 
cool place. 



406 THE DAIRYMAlSr's MAKtJAt. 

The business of bottling milk for sale is one that 
should be encouraged as far as possible. The milk 
should be cooled, as above mentioned, before it is put 
in the bottles, and then sealed' up tightly, using rubber 
rings under the stopj^ers. The Warren bottle (figure 98) 
,is the kind most used and holds a quart. Another very 
lUs^ful bottle is shown at figure 99. As there is a loss of 
fully ten per cent in measuring milk out of the large cans 
in single pints and quarts, this is saved when bottles are 
used, and the loss of bottles will not be as much as this. 
Our method of distributing milk in bottles has been to 
pack them in nests of two dozen, in boxes, filling the 
interstices with dry sawdust, or clean fresh grass in the 
summer. If the boxes are shipped and pass through 
several hands they should be locked and duplicate keys 
kept, to prevent any meddling with the milk. 

To avoid loss or complaints by souring of the milk, 
and to keep the bottles in good condition, the plan fol- 
lowed in the author's dairy lias been to give each cus- 
tomer a card with the following directions upon it: 

' ' Keep this bottle in a cool place. 

^' Or, loosen the cover and set the bottle in a pot of 
cold water and heat to nearly boiling ; then close the 
cover and set the bottle in a clean closet as cool as pos- 
sible. 

"When the bottle is emptied rinse it out with cold 
water and leave it filled with fresh cold water until taken 
away. " 

When the driver receives the emptied bottles he pours 
out the water and sets the bottle in a rack in the wagon. 
The large majority of consumers on a milk route will 
readily pay a cent a quart more for milk put up in this 
w\ay, and this extra cent, with half a cent a quart saved 
in the measuring, will pay for a bottle in the sale of six- 
teen quarts. The bottles are not only paid for but the 
extra labor of handling them is also compensated for. 



Winter datryikg. 407 

There have been found some serious difficulties in tlie 
way of distributing- milk b}^ dealers in large towns and 
cities, and milk producers have complained very much of 
loss of milk, excessively low price, and loss of cans. A most 
effective remedy for these evils, which reduced the profits 
of the business very much, has been found in association 
of the producers. The dairymen combine and form an 
Association, which makes contracts with the railroad 
companies, hires an agent in the city to receive and dis- 
pose of the milk and to look after the return and ship- 
ment of the cans. On the other side the milk dealers 
have also combined and formed what are called '^Milk 
Exchanges." The two associations naturally become an- 
tagonistic, and when the expense of delivering milk in 
a large city is greater than the cost of producing it, there 
seems to be some necessity for this antagonism on the 
part of the producers, who find, in their own associations, 
freedom from dictation and extortion and a better service 
in every way. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

WINTER DAIRYING. 

The author's special proclivity has been for winter 
dairying. He has learned, from many years' experience, 
that there are several very great advantages in pursuing 
a special business in which few persons are willing to 
engage, because it may be some little way out of their 
regular line of work. The most profit is made from 
special industries and products. The reason is that those 
persons who have the enterprise, energy, and skill to 
engage in any unusual industry meet with less competi- 
tion than those who employ themselves in any ordinary 
occupation. It is true that they have more difficulties 



40$ THE DAIRYMAN *S MANtTAL. 

to encounter and overcome, but this is the very reason 
why they get a better price for their products and better 
pay for their hibor. The winter dairy is one of the most 
profitable of these special industries. There are several 
' reasons for this. One is that few dairymen or farmers 
are making butter in the winter, and consequently the 
supply of the fresh article is limited. Another is that 
those persons who are able to manage a winter dairy are 
experienced and skillful and consequently produce a bet- 
ter quality of butter than others. Other reasons are that 
the management of a dairy in the winter is really easier 
and more certain than that of a summer dairy, because 
it is not so difficult to maintain the requisite temperature 
by the use of heat as by the use of ice; there is no trouble 
from premature souring of the milk; the cows are in 
better condition when they are properly cared for; the 
food can be more perfectly regulated, and the whole of 
the dairyman's attention can be given to his special busi- 
ness without the interference of the ordinary farm work 
of the summer. 

There are some special requisites needed for this busi- 
ness in addition to the unusual capabilities of the dairyman. 
A near market is needed, a snug and Avell -arranged stable 
and yard, a properly constructed dairy-house, the best 
furniture and apparatus, a herd of cows kept specially 
for this use and coming in fresh in the right season, a 
proper preparation for feeding both as regards the crops 
and the use of them, and a rigid and strict regularity 
and consistence in every process and operation. 

The dairyman himself is the first necessity. He must 
be thoroughly experienced in the management of the 
herd, and sufliciently well versed in the science and prac- 
tice of his art to be equal to all emergencies which may 
arise through tlie changeable weather and the varying 
temperature, which afiiect the cows as well as the milk 
and cream, and every operation from the beginning to 



WINTER DAIKYIKG. 409 

the end of the business. He must be thoughtful, observ- 
ant, free from all prejudices, apt of perception, and quick 
to take advantage of every occurrence, favorable or other- 
wise, which may arise. He must also be a good business 
man and know how to dispose of his product in the 
best manner, for there is quite as much in this as in the 
preparation of it. He must be a good judge of cows, 
able to provide himself with a first-class herd, for it costs 
no more, and often not so much, to feed a good cow 
as a poor one; neat, and having a thorough sense of 
cleanliness ; a good and careful milker ; regular in his 
habits, and withal kind and considerate to his cows. He 
must be a good farmer, and, while a winter dairy may 
be operated without a supply of roots, yet he should be 
careful to grow a crop of these for his cows, because they 
are the balance weight, as it were, of the feeding, pre- 
serving uniformity in the quantity and quality of the 
product, and producing a well-flavored and w^ell-colored 
butter. He must also be, able to produce maximum 
crops of whatever kind he grows, because, necessarily 
having high-priced land near a large and good market, 
it is indispensable for profit that he must keep the largest 
number of cows upon the least possible number of acres, 
and therefore he must raise a large supply of fodder. 
Green crops and roots, being bulky and not purchasable, 
must be grow^n on the farm, while grain food may be 
purchased more cheaply than it can be grown. A winter 
dairy farm should have only enough pasture to keep the 
cows during their unproductive season, helped out by 
some green fodder crops. The crops grown should be 
mainly clover, fodder corn, and roots. The clover is 
kept in the ground two years only, when it is turned 
under and sown to rye, which is cut for the cows to help 
out the pasture, and is then turned down for the fodder 
corn. Two crops of sweet corn are raised in one season 
— one of some early variety, as Narragansett, followed by 



416 THE DAIRYMAN^S MA.KtAL. 

Evergreen, and these two will yield, or. should be made to 
yield, at least eight tons of cured fodder, or eighteen tons 
of ensilage, per acre. The next crop on the corn stub- 
ble will be roots, and this crop is followed by rye seeded 
with clover in the spring and cut green if necessary for 
the cows in the summer. Where fine butter can be sold, 
sweet corn is also readily salable; and as the dairyman 
needs the fodder, this vegetable can be grown for market 
with great advantage in conjunction with winter dairy- 
ing. Musk-melons are another excellent crop for this 
business, and some skillful growers make from $300 to 
$500 per acre from it upon a rye stubble, leaving the 
land clear for sowing rye again for seeding with clover in 
the spring. Early potatoes, peas, and summer cabbages 
and turnips are also profitable crops for this business, 
and they leave the land in time for a crop of sweet corn 
or millet for winter feeding. It is these summer crops, 
taken in connection with the fodder crops for winter use, 
and which afford some feed for the cows while on the 
restricted pasture during the summer, that present a sub- 
ject for close study and methodical arrangement by the 
winter dairyman. Another important part of the busi- 
ness is the rearing of calves upon the sweet skim milk, 
warmed to a right temperature (eighty to ninety de- 
grees). The heifer calves from a herd of well bred cows, 
or of good grades served by a pure bred Jersey, Hoi stein, 
or Ayrshire bull, afford a considerable profit to the dairy- 
man, and we know from personal experience that the 
progeny of a good cow may be made to bring in to her 
owner in the course of her useful life no less than $500 
without any difficulty. 

The cows for winter dairying should be of some breed 
which is largely productive of butter. The best strains 
of Ayrshire cows are excellent, but we have found the 
butter to be too hard under the heavy grain feeding and 
the low temperature, and consequently an equal number 



WtKTER DAIRYII^G. 4ll 

of pure Jerseys of good butter stock and some cross bred 
Jerseys and Ayrshires — which made the very best cows, 
yielding from ten to twelve pounds of butter weekly — 
were used in the dairy. When butter sells for fifty cents 
a pound, it will pay to get the best cows, even at a cost 
of $100 to $150 each. It will even pay when butter sells 
for no more th^m thirty or thirty-five cents a j^ound to 
have cows that yield ten pounds of butter weekly. The 
cost of feeding cows in the winter is less than in the 
summer; the labor is less, and other expenses of the dairy 
are not so much as in summer. A cow then that yields 
ten pounds of butter in winter at thirty cents a pound, 
as compared with one that yields seven pounds at tAventy 
cents in summer, is 100 per cent in favor of the winter 
dairy, and equal to $1.50 weekly. For the thirty or forty 
weeks of the season this difference amounts to forty-five 
or sixty dollars, which in one year pays the difference in 
the value of the cow, leaving still a calf worth fifty dol- 
lars as a bonus. It is an example of the truism that 
" the best always pays the best," and this is most espe- 
cially true in dairying, and more than ever in winter 
butter making. 

The arrangement of the barn and yard should be such 
as to reduce the labor as much as possible, and the sys • 
tem adopted by the author, as described in previous 
chapters, has been found convenient and economical in 
every respect. There are no foolish whims about it, no 
coddling or fussing over the cows, and nothing but what 
is indispensable in a working dairy carried on for profit 
and not for show. Excessive warmth is not conducive to 
robustness, health or profit. One may learn how this is 
himself. If a man's house is kept closed up and heated 
with stoves to a temperature of eighty degrees, and his 
food and drink are all taken hot with a vieAv to prevent- 
ing the effects of the cold and to insure more comfort, 
the dwellers in that house will become sick or diseased — 



412 IrSE DAIRYMAI^^S MAXTAL. 

the impure air will poison the blood, the warmth will re- 
lax the skin, dry it and open the pores, and the slightest 
draft will cause a fit of shivering and induce dangerous 
colds. It is in precisely such houses that sore throats, 
diphtheria, scarlet fever and other diseases are so frequent; 
while in the house where the windows are thrown open 
to the breezes, and the cold, brisk, pure air is welcomed, 
and exercise and health give warmth, fed by the abun- 
dant oxygen of the fresh air coursing through the blood, 
there is health and vigor and comfort. It is the same in 
the dairy. Pleuro-pneumonia invades those herds which 
are kept in close, warm, unwholesome stables, and the 
dreaded tuberculosis finds there its prey; while from 
the wide airy stable, well ventilated and filled with pure 
cool air, the well fed cows will emerge to frolic in the 
snow and enjoy the bright sunshine and the crisp air. 
Excepting in stormy weather, the cows should spend at 
least three or four hours every day in the yard. 

To preserve a healthful condition, maintain the vital 
warmth, and keep the skin in proper action, thorough 
carding and brushing should not be neglected in a winter 
dairy, and the utmost cleanliness in every respect should 
be observed. Abundant supplies of absorbents, of which 
dried swamp muck is the best, and hard wood sawdust 
and fresh leaves next, and in place of these cut straw or 
any other fine waste material, should be procured. The 
winter dairy affords a grand opportunity for making 
manure. 

The feeding must be liberal and of the best food. It 
must be regular in quality, quantity, and time. The 
drinking water should always be warmed suflSciontly to 
take off the chill. Giving the cows ice-cold water will 
diminish the aggregate butter yield several pounds a week. 

The management of the milk and cream in a winter 
dairy is the most critical part of the business. The ever- 
varying temperature has to be guarded against and regu- 



WII^TER DAIRYIKG. 413 

lated so as to be kept even and up to the point required 
for the largest quantity and the best quality of the butter. 
This, however, is by no means so difficult as it might 
seem, and our experience goes to show that it is not so 
troublesome or costly as to keep an even temperature 
through the summer, and avoid all those interferences of 
the weather which affect the cows, the milk, the cream, 
and the churning in the hot season. Fuel is cheaper 
than ice, and by proper construction and management of 
the dairy -house very little fuel is required, in some cases 
none. There are two methods of constructing and ar- 
ranging milk-houses, and we have used both with very 
satisfactory results. In one case a permanent spring is 
required, and one which does not freeze, but will main- 
tain a regular temperature of forty-five degrees. This is 
brought in pipes laid three feet below the surface, with 
a cistern or vat sunk in the ground and lined with ce- 
ment or brick. A tank of this kind in the author's dairy 
was lined with white bricks, and floored with white 
quartz pebbles upon which the deep pails stood in eigh- 
teen inches of water always flowing in at the bottom and 
out at the top. The w^ater came from a bubbling spring 
in the ground, and never varied more than five degrees 
the year round. A house with double walls was built 
over the spring, and had three apartments — one for the 
tank, one for churning and washing utensils in, and an 
upper one for storing pails, wrappers, etc. The top of 
the tank was raised four inches above the level of the 
cemented floor, and was covered in by two falling doors, 
so that in the severest weather the temperature in the 
tank did not vary one degree. The furniture in this 
room consisted solely of a low bench for skimming the 
pails upon, a rug to preserve the feet from the coldness 
of the floor, and an oaken table for the butter until it 
was finished and for the pails until they were shipped. 
The other apartment had a pump connected with the 



414 THE dairyman's manual. 

spring, a stove with a hot water reservoir, a low sink for 
washing utensils in and connected with a drain which 
emptied into a stream near by, a table, a hot box, churn, 
and butter-worker. The stove was heated only upon 
the days when churning was done or in very cold weather 
to make work in the tank-room more comfortable. The 
milk strained in the barn was again strained before it 
was put in the tank. The tank v/as provided with cross- 
bars of galvanized iron set in the bricks, and making a 
number of spaces in which the pails were set so that they 
could not overturn when plunged to nearly their entire 
depth in the water. The cream, skimmed every twenty- 
four hours, was kept in the tank until the evening before 
it was to be churned, when it was put in the hot box to 
be ripened. This box had double sides, bottom, and 
cover, and was lined with sheet cork inside to retain the 
heat. Two deep pails of hot water — not so hot as to 
make steam — and closely covered, were put in the box, 
and the cream cans with them. Eighteen hours in this 
box thus warmed with water at one hundred and twenty 
degrees brought the cream up to seventy degrees, and 
when put into the churn, warmed by a dash of hot water, 
was never less than sixty-five degrees when the churning 
began. The room was heated to sixty-five or seventy 
degrees during the churning. The churn used was the 
rectangular or the Blanchard, both kinds being used 
during the numerous experiments made on the action 
and eSects of churning. The former has no dasher, the 
latter has a most convenient one, and this is practically 
all the difference between them. Both make the granu- 
lar butter, if the churning is stopped at the right time, 
and the butter can be washed free from the buttermilk 
in either of them. 

The other milk-room, a basement cellar, opening into 
a room heated by a stove, '^as furnislied with shelves 
arranged on three sides of it, It was lighted and venti- 



WINTEK DAIRYING. 415 

lafeed by a window near the ceiling on the north side; the 
walls were of stone and quite thick— one foot above th^ 
ground, where the slope was highest, and four feet lower 
down. It was furred and lathed and plastered j the floor 
was cement ; the room over it was a parlor of the house 
and was constantly heated. Thus the temperature was 
very uniform, and sixty-five degrees was maintained in it 
quite easily by opening the door of the adjoining room, 
which was used for churning and washing utensils. The 
shelves were in three tiers and made of four strips one 
and one-quarter inches thick and three wide, set on edge 
so that the air could circulate all around the pans with- 
out impediment; to aid this the strips were beveled on the 
top to an edge. The shelves were fourteen inches w^ide 
and ten inches apart; the top shelf was covered with a 
wide board to prevent any dust from settling down upon 
the milk. The pans were of pressed tin, fourteen inches 
in diameter and four inches deep, and were filled three 
inches deep with milk, making eight quarts. The milk, 
after setting in the usual way, was skimmed at the end of 
thirty-six hours by floating off the film of cream into a 
suitable jar with as small a quantity of milk as possible. 
The cream, kept thirty-six hours longer and stirred when 
new cream was put in with it, was but slightly acid at 
the end of this period, and was in just the right condition 
for churning. AVhen it was not churned alone for ex- 
periment this cream was put in the churn with that 
from the deep pails; being already at a right temperature 
and ripe for use. 

All through this work every attention w^as paid to pre- 
serve perfect purity of the air and cleanliness of the uten- 
sils — a drop of spilled cream or milk was at, once wiped 
and washed off the floor, no smoking or chewing tobacco 
was permitted in or about the milk-houses, ventilation was 
given when the air was dry and pure, and moisture was 
piod crated, when in excess in damp and foggy weather, 



416 THE dairyma:n''s manual. 

by the use of fresh quick-lime, which quickly absorbed 
the moisture and kept the air pure and fresh. Wood was 
used for fuel in the stoves, and the thermometers were 
frequently consulted to keep the temperature even and 
steady. All these precautions cost nothing but thought 
and a little — a very little — time, but they go far to 
making the business of winter dairying profitable and 
pleasant. 

Most of the troubles incident to winter dairying arise 
from neglect to keep the tem23erature even, and in over- 
warming the cream. Sometimes a farrow cow may do 
much mischief, because her milk contains a large pro- 
portion of albumen, which coaguUites on the first appear- 
ance of acid in the cream and forms white flakes which 
cannot be separated from the butter. Overfeeding, by 
producing disorder of the udder and ropiness or thick 
clots in the milk, which may pass through the strainer 
into the churn, also produces these troublesome white 
specks. Keeping the milk at too low a temperature and 
for too long a time, when there is not enough of it for a 
churning two or three times a week, is also a source of 
trouble. Then the excess of acid curdles the milk in the 
cream and the whey separates. This neglect of the right 
temperature then makes it necessary to warm the cream 
for churning, and this is usually done by setting the jar 
near the stove or in a pan of hot water, by which a por- 
tion of the cream is made too warm and the curd becomes 
hardened in small flakes. The too acid cream often 
foams in the churn and the butter does not come, or if 
the cream is too cold the butter will not gather. 

Temperature is the active agent for good or bad in win- 
ter dairying, and the neglect of it is the cause of nearly 
every trouble which arises. The strict observance of the 
principles set forth in treating of the various subjects 
in this and previous chapters, is essential to success at 
any time in dairy operations, but much more in the 



• WINTER DAIRYIKG. 4K 

winter. When everything has gone right up to this 
point there will be no trouble in churning and the but- 
ter will come in the right form and condition in a regu- 
lar time, whioh will scarcely exceed from twenty to thirty 
minutes, according to the rapidity of churning. Eighty 
turns a minute will invariably bring the butter in the 
winter, when everything is right, in twenty minutes. 

AVith winter dairjdng it is possible to rear calves on 
the sweet skimmed milk, for all the milk wdll be sweet 
when skimmed. This is warmed up to eighty degrees 
and given to the calves, which are kept in snug, warm, 
comfortable pens, deeply littered with leaves or straw over 
a deep bed of dry swamp muck. The calves are fed 
until the grass comes in the spring, when they are weaned; 
the cow's business soon ends, the crops occupy all the 
time. The demand for fresh butter is met by the 
general supply of cheap creamery or farm dairy butter; 
and the winter dairyman's harvest is over. He is then 
occupied in raising food crops for another season, the 
cows gambol in the pasture's, or doze lazily under the 
shady trees in the wood lot, and there is rest and peace 
in the household, unknown where the summer dairy is 
carried on amid the plagues of flies, the heats and 
drouths of the season, and all the cares of farm work, 
sowing and reaping and gathering into barns, and the 
low prices caused by excessive supply. 



418 THE dairyman's MANUAL. 



CHAPTEK XXVIT. 
THE FAMILY DAIRY. 

Thebe are probably more than a million of the six 
million families in this country who do not live upon 
farms that keep one or two cows for milk and butter. 
The statistics given in the agricultural reports regarding 
the number of cows kept we think very defective and 
incorrect. Ten million cows are far too few to be dis- 
tributed among six million farmers, and the very numer- 
ous class of dwellers in villages and small towns, or upon 
small plots too modest in area to be dignified by the name 
of farms. These small family dairies are often badly 
managed and too expensively kept, because the owners 
do not know liow to avail themselves of all the advan- 
tages which accrue from experience and skill in making 
the most of a small plot of land, or in feeding the best 
cows to be procured, so as to secure the largest product 
at the least cost. It is in these modest family dairies 
that cows are subject to more accidents arising out of 
neglect or want of accurate knowledge in their manage- 
ment. Hence, all through this work, a prevailing idea 
has been to incorporate with the fuller information de- 
sired by farmers and business dairymen, such plain and 
simple facts as may serve to guide the owner of a family 
dairy of a single cow in the way he should go to secure 
the most milk and butter for the least cost of money and 
work. 

The family cow should be the best that can be afforded. 
A copious milker and a good butter producer should be 
chosen, because a surplus of butter should be packed away 
in the time of plenty to supply the family through the 



THE FAMILY DAIRY. 419 

period in which the cow is taking a rest. This time will be 
from two to three months, and as an ordinary family will 
use from three to four pounds of butter weekly, the cow 
should be able to produce at least 200 pounds of butter 
during her milking period, besides furnishing milk and 
cream for the table. This would make up the required 
yield to an equivalent of 250 pounds of butter yearly. 
This is nearly a pound a day for the entire nine months 
of the milking period. There are not many ordinary 
cows able to do this, and yet there are at least one million 
of them wanted. This suggests to the breeders of cows 
an exceedingly remunerative business in rearing grades 
of Jersey or Guernsey stock which will be able to supply 
the wants of this large class of small dairies. 

The best cow for this purpose is a cross bred of two 
breeds, one capable of giving a large quantity of milk 
and the other of making a large quantity of butter. A 
small cow is also required, because of the restricted pas- 
ture and the moderate means at command for feeding the 
cow. The Ayrshire and Jersey or Guernsey breeds crossed 
supply this demand in a more nearly perfect manner than 
any others. A cross of Dutch and Jersey or Guernsey 
also makes an excellent family cow; but as there are not 
enough of these pure breeds to go around, the largest 
part of these family dairies must be supplied with the 
best of the native cows, or good grades. Thousands of 
farmers who have good native cows might procure a good 
bull of any of these breeds and cross it upon their cows 
and rear calves for sale to supply this large demand. 

The stable for a cow may be a very simple affair, and 
plans for such will be found in Chapter IX. If a horse is 
kept there should be a separate entrance for the cow, or 
one of the animals should be kept in a closed stall, so 
there could be no danger of one injuring the other. If 
a pig is kept it should never be permitted to become a 
source of ill odors in the cow stable, and by all means the 



420 THE dairyman's manual. 

pig should not be kept in tlie manure yard. If a cow 
needs to be kept clean for the sake of the sweetness and 
purity of the milk and butter, a pig should be kept 
equally clean for the sake of the meat; for a pig is sub- 
ject to all the conditions in this respect that a cow is, and 
pure wholesome pork is as desirable as pure wholesome 
milk and butter can be. 

For preparing the feed for the cow a small-sized fod- 
der cutter should be procured, one of the copper-strip 
roller kind is perhaps the most desirable and easily kept 
in order, and the fodder should be cut and fed with the 
meal. In the summer the feeding should be pasture 
or grass cut and carried to a small yard, and the daily al- 
lowance of meal may be given mixed with the fresh grass 
or some of the waste of the garden and the house. Par- 
ings of potatoes, turnips, pea pods, pea vines, and the 
clippings of the lawn, will all afford useful food for a 
cow. In country places where half the roadway belongs 
to the owner of the lot, and the public have only a right 
of way and passage over the road, the roadsides may 
be kept in clover and grass and afford a large amount of 
feeding. The author's residence comprised three acres 
of land with roads on three sides, in all taking up nearly 
1,000 feet in length and twenty-five in width of useful 
land not required for the use of the public. Tliis made 
up more than half an acre of land, from which sufficient ^ 
grass and hay were cut to feed a cow for half the year. 
The clippings of the lawn of three-quarters of an acre 
furnished quite an equal quantity of the best of fodder, 
young grass of the most nutritious kind. The mowing 
of an acre or more of orchard, the fodder of sweet corn, 
and the spare apples, pears, beets, peas, carrots and po- 
tatoes from the garden, with the grass and hay, all pro- 
vided sufficient feeding, with the half bushel of corn 
meal and bran weekly, to feed two Jersey cows which 
yielded over twenty pounds of butter every week in iaddi- 



THE FAMILY DAIRY. 



421 



tion to a liberal supply of milk and cream for the fam- 
ily during the whole summer. Four-fifths of this but- 
ter was eagerly bought by neighbors at fifty cents and 
upwards per pound, giving a very handsome interest 
upon the value of the cows. 

The farm, a few miles distant, had half a mile of road 
through it, which was kept in good order, without help 
from the perfunctory road master and his able assistants, 
in the same way, and excepting the road track was 
plowed, manured, and seeded with grass and clover and 
was mowed as regularly as the fields were. An envious 




Fig. 100. Fig. 101. 

neighbor, who wished to enforce his rights to do as he 
pleased on the road and who drove maliciously through 
the grass, breaking and tearing it down, was promptly 
prosecuted and fined for trespass, and taught that the 
road was owned by the owner of the land adjoining, and 
the public had only a right of passage over it, and only 
on the beaten track, and that the owner of the land 
could use it for any purpose he wished provided it did 
not interfere with this public easement. Thus one may 
turn this valuable land to good purpose in growing grass 
for the family cow and making it into hay or cutting 



422 THE da^irtman's makual. 

and feeding it in a fresh state. This will be a great help 
in such a dairy, and as an improvement upon the usual 
roadside weeds and general waste of the land, will com- 
mend itself to the good sense and thrift of all civilized 
and orderly people as well as to the sense of right and 
justice. 

In feeding cows upon lawns and small plots the teth- 
ering system will be found very convenient. We have 
used the two kinds of tethering pins shown in figures 
100 and 101; one has the advantage of being forced into 
the ground — when it is soft — without a mallet, but when 
the ground is dry and hard it is difficult to make it 
penetrate ; the other needs a mallet to drive it down, but 
as the mallet may be left near the pin, there will be no 
inconvenience in this respect. This pin has a swivel 
head which prevents twisting and entangling of the chain. 
A swivel should always be put into tethering chains to 
prevent twisting. These chains should always be made 
of steel for strength and lightness ; for if a cow in her 
playful moods once breaks her chain, she will always 
try the same trick by running at full speed the length 
of her tether in the effort to snap it again, and will 
generally succeed through one weak link. This is a 
troublesome habit and should be prevented, for with this 
method of feeding cows one may do a great deal of dam- 
age in her playfulness if she gets loose in a garden or on 
the lawn among ornamental trees and flower borders. 

The milk for a family dairy will be usually kept in 
the cellar as the most convenient place. If so, a part of 
the cellar should be divided off tightly to exclude dust, 
and the remainder should be kept free from all disagree- 
able odors. The whole cellar should be whitewashed with 
hot lime to destroy mold, and every decayed part of the 
floor should be removed. No cellar should have a wooden 
floor, the earth is better; but the best is a floor of cement, 
or flagstone laid in cement, both of which are indestruc- 



THE FAMILY DAIKY. 4^3 

tible and clean. If there is a spring conveniently situ- 
ated, a small house may be built over it and the water 
used to keep the milk cool in some of the ways previously 
described. An outside cellar, built in sloping ground, 
with a basement in front of it and a buildinsf over it 
which can be used for various purposes not inconsistent 
with a milk-house, will make an excellent place for 
keeping milk. In default of any other convenient ar- 
rangement milk may be kept in a clean roomy closet in 
the coolest j^art of the house, and many a good housewife 
makes excellent butter from milk kept in such a place. 
Pure air and regular temperature, even if it should go 
up to sixty -five or seventy degrees — provided the cream is 
skimmed before the milk is actually sour and never thick, 
and the cream is not left to stand longer than until it 
is moderately sour, and is stirred when fresh cream is 
added — will secure good butter, although only a closet in 
the house is all that can be afforded to keep the milk in. 
In the winter, a closet in the house, where the temper- 
ature is kept even by the warmth of a chimney passing 
through it, is an excellent place for the milk and cream, 
and better than a cellar where the temperature will go 
down to fifty degrees or less, for this is too high and too 
low for the best separation of the cream. When milk 
is kept in a cellar in the winter and the cellar becomes 
too cold in the coldest part of the season, it is not diffi- 
cult to raise the temperature to a right point by having 
a block of iron heated red hot in the fire, carried down 
and set upon a few bricks on the floor. A sheet-iron 
pail filled with hot coals from a wood fire will also serve 
the purpose of warming a cellar. In the coldest weather 
it will hurry up the rising of the cream if the pans of 
milk are set upon the stove and warmed up to about 
eighty degrees before being put away for the cream to 
rise. This will bring up the cream in twenty-four hours, 
making it thick and easily removed from the milk. 



424 THE dairyman's manual. 

When the clmrning is about to be done, the cream 
should be brought to a- temperature of sixty degrees in 
the summer, by setting the jar in ice water not cooler 
than forty-five degrees. If the thermometer shows that 
the temiDerature is seventy degrees in the place where the 
churning is to be done, the cream may be cooled to fifty- 
five or fifty-six degrees, as it will become warmed up a 
few degrees during the churning. In the winter the 
cream may be raised to sixty-five or even seventy de- 
grees, if the churning -room is as cool as fifty degrees. 
The temperature of the place where the churning is done 
should always be taken into account, so that the effect of 
it upon the cream may be equalized. 

In warming the cream by means of hot water care 
must be taken not to overheat any part of the cream. 
The cream is a thick adhesive fluid through which heat 
circulates very slowly, and if the heat of the water is 100 
or 120 degrees the sour milk and any albumen that may 
be contained in it will be partly coagulated and will form 
curds in the churn which cannot be separated from the 
butter, thus giving much trouble, disappointment and 
worry to the butter maker. The same evil will happen 
if the cream jar is set near a hot stove, unless the cream 
is constantly stirred. To avoid the necessity for warm- 
ins: the cream, it is advisable in the winter to skim the 
cream as close as possible, taking no more milk with it 
than can be avoided, and when the cream is prepared for 
the churn to bring it to the righ t temperature by stirring 
in, very gradually, water not warmer than ninety degrees, 
by which the cream will be thinned and warmed at the 
same time. In the summer the churn should be cooled 
by means of ice water before the cream is turned in, and 
in winter it should be warmed by a dash of hot water 
and a few turns to distribute the heat evenly. 

When butter which is put away for winter use is 
closely pressed down in the package it should be covered 



THE FAMILY DAIRY. 4^5 

with a wet cloth and then with salt, and the edges of 
the cloth turned back and pressed down closely to the 
edge of the jar. Some ah'-tight covering is then put 
over the jar, which is put away in a cool place for safe 
keeping. Good butter, well packed and kept in a sweet 
place, will go on improving in quality for six months, 
when it will be in the best condition for use. 

The family cow should be docile, easily handled, and 
free from vices and tricks. Such a cow is more easily 
reared than purchased. Hence it is desirable to rear 
one's cow from a calf, either by breeding the calf or by 
purchasing one when weaned and raising it. In this 
way a gentle and most serviceable cow can be procured 
and trained to her special life and purpose through all 
the gradations of calf and heifer up to the point of use- 
fulness. In breeding cows it is well to know that the 
ninth day after calving is the surest time to breed the cow 
for the next calf; after this, the cow will go for six weeks 
without becoming in breeding condition, and after this 
the periods recur at intervals of twenty and twenty-one 
days. Thus the time of the arrival of the next calf can 
be arranged to suit the convenience of the owner. In 
general, the cow which is fresh in September or October 
will be the most useful in a family dairy, as the supply 
of butter can be saved for use in the late summer, and 
the troubles incident to dairying in the hottest months 
of the year are avoided. If two cows are kept one should 
come in in March and the other in September. 



4:^6 THE DAIKYMAN's MAiTUAii. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

DISEASES OF COWS. 

''Prevention is better than cure." And in treating 
of the diseases which commonly occur in the dairy we 
would emphatically enforce this ancient adage as the rule 
of conduct in every herd, whether it consist of one cow 
or a hundred. The dairyman should be always on his 
guard to avoid causes of disease — those too common 
errors of management and feeding which disturb the 
natural functions of the animal, and by causing disorder 
of the system produce what we term disease. 

Cows are usually healthy and robust. The exceptions 
are the high-bred and high-fed animals kept by breeders 
who force their stock by every possible means to undue 
production. Life. and vigor cannot be drawn upon so 
excessively and last to the end of the common period of 
usefulness. The stock of these is something like a fixed 
quantity from which one may take small or large drafts ; 
the larger these are the sooner will the supply be ex- 
hausted ; and this is very much the case with high-kept 
dairy stock. The common dairy cqw, moderately fed, 
never pushed beyond the natural period and capability 
for milking, lasts for twenty years without an ailment or 
an accident, except as the result of some carelessness 
or neglect. On the other hand, the high-bred Jersey 
cow, valued at thousands of dollars because she responds 
liberally to a system of forcing and makes a remarkable 
product of butter from high-feeding, is constantly suffer- 
ing from garget or threatened with serious disease, and 
finally dies of milk fever. And yet the Jersey cow, 
notwithstanding her occasional want of constitution, 



DISEASES OF COWS. 427 

will always be the favorite family cow and the " butter- 
machine" of the dairyman. It is therefore necessary 
that precautions should be used both to avoid accidental 
disturbances with common cows and to avert threatened 
dangers from those which are more subject to disorder. 
The owner of a cow should know when his animal is 
doing well and be able to recognize at once the first 
approach of trouble. A healthy animal exlnbits certain 
unmistakable signs of its condition: the appetite is regu- 
lar and vigorous, the muzzle is moist and covered with 
drops of perspiration, the eye is bright and active, the 
coat is smooth, the horns are moderately warm, the milk 
Is given in full quantity, the respiration, is easy, the 
pulse is regular, and tlie process of rumination is con- 
stant soon after eating. When an animal is ailing, the 
first effect of the distu^'bance is more or less of fever, and 
this is indicated by the dryness and heat of the muzzle, 
uneasy or rapid breathing, coldness or excessive heat of 
the horns, falling-off of the appetite, rise of temperature 
and increase of the pulse. The frequency of the respira- 
tion and of the pulse varies in different animals, but in 
health the respiration is always easy and the pulse never 
more than fifty in a minute in adult cows. The pulse 
may be felt most conveniently on the cheek, near the large, 
flat muscle which closes the jaws. Here the sub-maxil- 
lary artery comes from the inside and passes over the 
edge of the bone and up the side of the face in front of 
this large muscle. The artery may be felt by placing 
the first and second fingers of the right hand on the left 
jaw towards the inner side of- the bone, and the thumb 
on the outside to keep a steady pressure. The brachial 
artery may be felt on the inner side of the fore-arm, 
below the shoulder, level with the elbow joint, and in 
advance of it. A little practice with moderate pressure 
of the fingers will soon fix the places where these arteries 
can be found and the pulse examined. 



428 THE DAIRYMAN'S MANUAL. 

The next usual symptom of disorder is the suspension 
of rumination, or "loss of cud." This is generally ac- 
companied by roughness of the skin, dullness of the 
eyes, and apparent lassitude, the cow moping and stand- 
ing apart with the head down and occasionally grinding 
the teeth. When these symptoms are noticed it is time 
to be on the alert to discover the cause of the trouble 
and apjoly an immediate remedy. Usually some circum- 
stance may be recalled which will account for the dis- 
turbance — some over-feeding, some exposure, or neglect, 
or even some change of feeding, which is often sufficient 
to disarrange the system and cause sickness. Neglect of 
timely precautions may in such cases bring on serious 
disease of the blood and a general inflammatory condition 
which will subject the animal to danger of infection by 
means of germs of disease which are always present in 
the atmosphere, waiting for a favorable opportunity of 
becoming sown in a suitable soil, so to speak, where all 
the requisite conditions for their immediate growth may 
be presented. The first approaches of disease are usually 
silent and inconspicuous. Some little changes may be 
noted, but these seem so insignificant that they are passed 
over without any serious thonght, and are forgotten. 
Here is the greatest mistake that is made. It is far 
easier to prevent mischief than to cure or avert it when 
it has arrived. The lower animals, with dull nervous 
systems, patient and uncomplaining, exhibit no signals 
of distress until the strength fails and disease has taken 
a strong hold upon them. In many cases remedies are 
then too late which at the outset might have successfully 
prevented a serious attack. 

A dose of some simple purgative medicine, as a pint or 
a quart of raw linseed oil when the digestive organs are 
disturbed, or a pound or twenty- four ounces of Epsom 
salts when there are inflammatory or febrile symptoms, 
or one-ounce doses of hyposulphite of soda when the 



DISEASES OF COWS. 429 

blood is out of order, will usually quickly restore the 
animal to better health. The exercise of precaution, 
however, in feeding, watering, securing pure air, and 
protection against the rigors of the weather, such as have 
been suggested in previous chapters, will generally be 
sufficient to keep a herd in such good health that an 
occasional dose of the simple medicines above mentioned 
will be all that may be needed, except on unusual occa- 
sions, when, from unforeseen circumstances, more serious 
disorders may invade the herd. In the dairy these dis- 
orders will be chiefly those which appertain to calving 
and which occur immediately before or subsequent to 
this interesting event, which consequently calls for more 
than usual foresight and preparatory precautions. 

Usually the common diseases of this class are inflam- 
matory in their character, and are due to a too high or a 
too low condition ; in either case the natural functions 
are interfered with, and a disturbance of the circula- 
tion results. They are us.ually serious, and some, as 
milk fever, are often fatal, consequently the utmost pre- 
cautions should be taken for a month or two before the 
period of calving arrives. During this time the feeding 
should be simple but nutritious ; no stimulating food 
should be given ; grass or gl*een fodder in the summer 
and good hay and roots in the winter, but no grain food, 
should be the fare, and every possible care should be 
exercised to avoid fatigue, nervous excitement, wo-rry 
or violent usage. The management of the cow pre- 
vious to calving should be such as is recommended in 
Chapter XIII. It is to the observance of this careful 
management that the author attributes his exemption 
from all trouble in his dairy for over twenty years, in 
which he has never had a sick cov/, or an abnormal calv- 
ing, or lost a calf, or had any animal injured in the 
slightest degree. 



430 THE daieyman's manual. 

ABORTIOIf. 

This disease is one of the most injurious of those 
■which affect dairy cattle. It has been considered a mys- 
terious disorder and much investigation has been devoted 
to its causes and progress without any very certain result 
until the present time. It is called abortion in the 
cow when the foetus is expelled before the seventh month 
and before it has been sufficiently developed to maintain 
an existence separately from the dam. After this period 
the expulsion of the foetus, whether it be living or dead, 
is called premature birth. This period has been fixed 
by veterinarians, as well as by physicians, as the connect- 
ing limit between these two forms of accidents of preg- 
nancy, because after the 200th day the foetus becomes 
caj)able of a separate existence, and may live and thrive, 
under exceptionally favorable circumstances, although at 
first weakly or immature. 

Premature birth, too, can scarcely be considered, a 
disease, but rather in the light of an accidental occur- 
rence due to various causes, while abortion is undoubt- 
edly a disease originating in certain disordered conditions 
of the animal, which can be traced to a specific cause or 
result of causes. It may be classed as of two kinds, 
sporadic or enzootic, and epizootic, infectious, or conta- 
gious. The former maybe due to several causes, ex- 
tern:\l and internal ; the latter is always due to infection 
by a specific germ introduced into the system and devel- 
oped by favorable circumstances. 

Sporadic or Accidental Abortion.— The causes 
of accidental abortion are very numerous, acting either 
directly or indirectly, and produce their effects in an 
evident or obscure manner. 

The External Caioses are physical injuries arising 
from falls, blows, severe exercise, as being chased by dogs 
cr other cattle, continued bad weather and exposure to 



DISEASES OF COWS. 431 

cold rains which are especially injurious, squeezing or 
crowding through narrow doorways, nervous excitement, 
fear, and offensive odors. The results of these injuries 
are mechanical, and are so obvious to an intelligent 
reader that no comment upon them is required. 

The l7iternal Causes arise from bad or unwholesome 
feeding, contributing disorders of other organs and 
febrile diseases, and least frequently uterine diseases 
which result in the death of the foetus. Unwholesome 
feeding, including watering, very frequently produces 
abortion. The use of frozen roots which chill the 
stomach and so reduce the temperature of the adjacent 
uterus as to kill the foetus ; the use of ice-cold water, 
which has the same effect ; feeding cotton-seed meal, 
smutty corn fodder, or ergoted grasses or straw, or rye 
bran from ergoted grain; innutritions food, or excessively 
rich food, the former starving the animal, the latter caus- 
ing too great plethora. All these and other closely related 
circumstances are most effective causes of this disorder. 
Acute fevers so increase the internal heat of the dam 
as to destroy the foetus. Pleuro-pneumonia causes its 
death by affecting the condition of the blood ; angemia, 
anasarca, tuberculosis, anthrax, apththae, and other seri- 
ous diseases of the dam, lowering her vital forces, have the 
same fatal effect upon the immature young creature in 
utero. The only refuge from these forms of this disease 
is prevention. 

Epizootic or Contagious Abortion" is a disorder of 
very frequent occurrence which has caused much dispute 
and discussion among the veterinary profession. Pro- 
fessor Saint Cyr, the eminent French veterinarian, after a 
long and exhaustive discussion concludes that the prin- 
cipal if not the only cause of this form of the disease is 
contagion; but he has not as yet been able to explain or 
describe the nature of the medium by which the disease 
is communicated or spread, or its mode of action in the 



433 THE dairyman's manual. 

infected cows. Without entering into any discussion of 
the apparent causes of this disease — wliich enters into a 
herd without previous notice or any premonition of dis- 
aster, and goes through it, causing one cow after another 
to lose her calf after periods of gestation of three to 
seven or eight months, and which, having desolated the 
farm for this year, reappears in the same herd or an en- 
tirely new one, if the same stable and yards are used — it 
will be sufficient to mention that none or all of the al- 
leged causes of this disease w^ill explain satisfactorily any 
hypothesis or belief that any other conditions than the 
introduction of a specific germ into an animal, or a herd 
or stable, will reasonably account for the peculiar cir- 
cumstances under which this malady makes its sudden 
appearance in localities where it has never been heard of 
previously. These circumstances are as follows : 

1. Abortion usually follows the introduction into a 
stable or herd of some strange cow which is in calf and 
which loses its calf without any apparent cause or prov- 
ocation. Then one of the other cows loses its calf, a 
second and a third follow, and the disease goes through 
the whole herd. In a case known to the author of a 
herd of seventy-two valuable Jersey cows, only seven live 
calves were born in one year, and these were of cows 
which had nearly completed their terms of gestation be- 
fore the disease appeared. This infection followed the 

introduction of a cow purchased at a public sale in New 
York City, and this cow had lost her calf by abortion 
the previous year. 

2. It is usually the cows nearest to the newly intro- 
duced one which become affected, and the disease spreads 
by the closest contact. 

3. When cows from healthy herds are brought into in- 
fected herds or stables, those of them calving soon after 
pass through their period safely, but those whose time is 
more distant usually lose their calves. It thus appears 



DISEASES OF COWS. 433 

that a period of incubation is required for the develop- 
ment of the disease. 

4. When by accident infected stables have been de- 
stroyed by fire, and with the infected herd have been 
totally consumed, the disease has disappeared from the 
farm. 

5= Abortion usually occurs during the fourth month, 
although it may happen at any period of gestation. 

6. It appears to be a rule that the time of occurrence 
of this dis&cise arrives later in the period of gestation of 
the infected cows in succeeding years ; thus a cow which 
loses her calf one year in the fourth month, will not 
abort the next year until the fifth, and the year after 
until the sixth, and so on until the full time be passed, 
when the calf will appear to be full grown and healthy, 
but after a short time will be stricken with disease and 
perish apparently of inanition and -weakness. 

7. The condition of the cow does not seem to have any 
effect upon the progress of the disease, and heifers with 
their first calf are as likely to be affected as older cows. 

8. A cow under the influence of the infection gives no 
indication of suffering — eats, drinks, and milks as usual. 
But by close observation a changed appearance of the 
visible organs is to be noticed, a looseness of the parts 
and sinking of the muscles which always appear before 
calving become plainly apparent, and heifers '^spring" 
and exhibit the full udder as if about to calve naturally. 
One who has become experienced in the behavior of the 
diseased cows knows beforehand that the animal in- 
fected is about to abort. 

9. The expulsion of the foetus is so easily and quickly 
accomplished, and the cow shows so little concern or 
injury, that unless the owner is forewarned the accident 
might pass without notice, excepting when the foetal 
membranes are retained ; these being then removed with 
much difficulty, and on their appearance they show in- 



434 • THE DAIRYMAX'S MAXUAL. 

dications of being diseased at the points of adherence 
to the walls of the uterus, commonly known as the 
cotyledons. 

10. A. cow Avhich has once lost her calf will usually 
fail to breed, but become a " buller/' and be very 
troublesome or useless, and if she be bred successfully 
the calf will almost invariably be lost as the previous one 
was. 

11. When a cow which has lost her calf is kept from 
breeding for a considerable time there is a fair chance 
that she may be bred successfully; several months, or a 
whole year, should elapse. 

12. When the calf survives a premature birth it is in- 
variably weak and unthrifty; usually it dies after a few 
hours or days, bellowing incessantly, as if in suffering, 
and if it should survive it will never be profitable to its 
owner. 

These circumstances all tend to show that the disease 
is contagious and affects only one organ — viz. , the uterus — 
of the cow; the animal otherwise appearing in usual health, 
unless through the persistent retention of the foetal en- 
velopes, which by their decomposition and absorption 
may produce blood poisoning, the animal succumbs to 
the ultimate and secondary results of the disease. Ee- 
cent careful investigations undertaken by the French 
Minister of Agriculture, through Prof. E. Nocard of the 
Alfort Veterinary College, have confirmed the belief in 
the contagiousness of the disease and its communication 
by a special germ which exists in diseased organs, and 
whose presence in hitherto healthy animals invariably 
produces all the results which happen through infection. 

Prof. Xocard, as the results of his investigation, con- 
cludes as follows : 

1. In cows that have aborted, even in those that were 
pregnant for the first time, there exists in the interior of 
the uterus, between the mucous lining and the mem- 



DISEASES OF COWS. 435 

branes covering the foetus, especially iu the crypts of the 
cotyledons, various microscopic organisms which are 
not to be found in pregnant cows, or in cows that have 
already calved, belonging to districts in which abortion 
does not prevail. 

2. These microscopic organisms do not appear to 
exert any injurious action upon the mucous membrane 
of the uterus, whether during the period of the gestation 
destined to be suddenly terminated, or after abortion 
has taken place. 

3. The recurrence of abortion in the same subject is 
satisfactorily accounted for, if we admit the pathogenic 
influence of the microbes, by their remaining in the in- 
terior of the uterus up to the time when they can act as 
before upon a new foetus, or upon its envelopes. 

4. In like manner, cases of barrenness, following abor- 
tion, maybe explained by the acid reaction of the uterine 
fluid in which the microbes maintain themselves ; the 
spermatozoa cannot retain their vitality except in an 
alkaline medium. 

The careful study of the foregoing facts will easily 
enable those concerned to take the needed precautions 
for avoiding the occurrence of the simpler accidental 
form of this injurious disease, as well as of that of the 
still more serious or ruinous contagious form of it. Care 
to prevent accidents which so often occur through neg- 
lect or oversight ; to avoid the use of unwholesome food, 
and exposure to the vigors of the season, in the one case, 
and in the other to exercise the strictest precautions in 
bringing in strange cattle to the herd ; to put the new- 
comers into a close quarantine until their healthfulness 
is proved will prevent the disease, and to exact from the 
sellers a full guarantee of health before purchase and 
removal of any animal will prevent the serious losses 
which occur to the purchaser, if it does not evade the 
danger. Just here it may be ixsefuUy suggested that ^s 



4»^6 THE DAIRYMA^s-'s MAlfUAL. 

losses by contagious disease among valuable dairy herds 
have been very numerous and exceedingly costly of late, 
purchasers of valuable cattle should always exact of the 
sellers security against this risk, and should insist upon a 
full warranty of soundness and freedom from disease, 
wnth acknowledged liability for any damage that might 
happen from any breach of such warranty. With such 
precautions the onus and risk would fall where it natu- 
rally belongs, viz., upon the seller, who would then be 
very careful that the animals he disposes of are free from 
fault and would be most anxious to keep his stock in a 
perfectly healthful condition. 

When abortion appears in any herd, immediate treat- 
ment should be adopted. The cow should be instantly 
removed from the herd upon the first indication that 
she is about to lose her calf or has lost it, and kept iso- 
lated in a distant part of the farm, where she should be 
disinfected within and without in a thorough manner. 
Her treatment there should be as follows : The stable 
should be kept filled wdth vapor of carbolic acid, and so- 
lutions of sulphate of copper should be liberally spread 
over the floor and painted or sprayed upon the walls and 
furniture. Injections of solution of one dram of hypo- 
sulphite of soda in a quart of warm water should be 
made into the uterus, three times daily. Every evacua- 
tion of the cow should be covered with fresh made car- 
bolate of lime or solution of sulphate of copper, and the 
COW" should be given daily one ounce of hyi^osulphite of 
soda dissolved and mixed with some food. 

The stable itself may also be disinfected by burning in 
it a pound of sulphur and keeping the doors and win- 
dows tightly closed while the sulphurous acid fumes are 
distributed in every part of it. Of course no cows are t ) 
remain during the disinfection. The solution of sulphate 
of copper with which the floor, stalls and furniture is to be 
drenched is made by dissolving four ounces to the gallon 



DISEASES OF COWS. 437* 

of water, and carbolic acid should be kept exposed abund- 
antly in the stable by spraying it on the floor. Each 
cow should receive the hyposulphite of soda, given daily 
in the food for two or three weeks, and the disinfecting 
process should not be discontinued during this interval. 
'Medicine may be available if given in the first stages 
of the disease. When the condition of the animal is de- 
pressed tonics are called for. The ordinary tonic mixture 
of sulphate of iron, gentian and ginger in equal quantities, 
one dram of each for one dose, has been given with benefit. 
Tincture of Peruvian bark, made by infusing four ounces 
of the bark in a quart of whiskey, is also useful, given in 
four-ounce doses three times daily. Antiseptics are use- 
ful in the first stage of the infectious form of the disease. 
One-half -ounce doses of chlorate of potassa, or one-ounce 
doses of hyposulphite of soda, given daily until the 
symptoms disappear, have been given with benefit; as 
have four-dram doses of asafoetida, given twice daily for 
three days. A pint of infusion of black haw {viburnum 
prunifolium), or an equivalent of the tincture, has been 
found exceedingly effective in arresting the disease when 
in its early stages, and when given on the first premoni- 
tion of the disorder. This infusion was in common 
use on Southern plantations in time of slavery, when 
the negroes had used cotton root for procuring abortion, 
and was found most eff 3ctive in averting the effects of the 
root. This fact has a double significance in this regard. 
Epizootic abortion has been known from the earliest 
times. An old work upon Animal Plagues, printed 200 
years ago, describes several outbreaks of this disease 
which occurred previous to A. d. 800. A very destructive 
outbreak happened in Germany in 1777 among cows and 
pigs ; another in France seven years later affected most 
of the cows and mares. Medical works mention a srreat 
many instances of a similar kind, but without specifying 
any particular cause beyond the supposed influence of 



438 



THE DAIRYMAN S MANtlAL. 



unfaTorable weather and the presence of abundant ergot 
in the grain and grass crops. 



DISEASES OF THE 3JAMMARY GLANDS. 

Mammitis or Garget is one of the- most frequent and 
troublesome diseases in the dairy. " Caked bag" is the 
dread of the dairyman, who finds his supply of milk sud-^ 
denly cut oif and a sick cow upon his hands requiring 
care and treatment. The technical name, mammitis, or 




Fig. 102.— DIAGEAM OF A COW'S UDDER. 

inflammation of the mammae or milk glands, includes a 
number of affections of this organ ; garget, ropy milk, 
bloody milk, diseased or impure milk, and whatever may 
cause disorder of the milk secretions. 

A description of the construction of the udder, or 
rather the mammary glands, of which the cow has four 
inclosed in one common envelope, all of which we call 
the udder, will explain more clearly the nature and effect 
of the various disorders which are commonly included in 
the term garget. At figure 102 is a representation of a 



DISEASES OF COWS. 



439 



supposed section of the udder made lengthwise through 
it, from front to rear. At a is the milk vein, so-called, 
but really the abdominal subcutaneous yein, which in 
some cows has an enormous volume. The capillary or ulti- 
mate branches of this vein are very numerous, and connect 
and anastomose, or form a continuous net-work, with the 
capillary or ultimate branches of the subcutaneous ab- 
dominal artery which supplies the mammae with blood. 
These capillaries surround and envelop the gland vesicles, 
shown at figure 103. These gland vesicles here figured 
appear as magnified four times. Each one of these mi- 
nute vesicles has the office or function of secreting the 
milk from the blood supplied to it by the arteries, and 





Fig. 103. 



Fig. 104. 



forming cell tissue, and the blood which has parted 
with its quota of cell matter and fat then passes to its 
veins on its way to the lungs and heart for purification 
and a fresh supply of nutriment from the great thoracic 
vein which pours into the heart the blood newly formed 
from the digested food. Thus the milk is as direct a 
product of the blood as are the muscular tisue and 
fat, which are deposited in their proper places from the 
proper vessels of supply. These gland vesicles are clus- 
tered in groups around the lactiferous or milk-conveying 
ducts, much as a bunch of grapes is clustered around the 
stem upon which they hang from the vine-stalk. They 
are about l-200th of an incli in diameter. Each vesicle 
contains a number of cells and each cell has a nucleus or 



440 THE DAIRYMA]!^*S MANUAL. 

central mass ; this is shown at figure 104, in which the 
gland vesicles are highly magnified. These gland cells 
become infiltrated with fat during the period of milk 
production, and this fat supplies the cream of the milk. 
The milk ducts converge and run into two, three, and 
sometimes four large channels, which iji their turn empty 
into a larger reservoir situated at the base of the teat. 
These milk ducts are lined with a fine mucous mem- 
brane, and this itself secretes some portion of the milk 
w^hich always contains more or less mucus. The teat 
is formed of, first, this fine mucous membrane, which is 
very delicate and sensitive, then a thick layer of tissue 
over which the mucous membrane is doubled, and this 
tissue is again covered by the skin. Among this tissue 
are numerous bundles (fasciculi) of muscular fiber, ar- 
ranged in a circular arud a longitudinal manner around 
the duct or orifice of the teat. At the base of the teat is 
the sphincter muscle, which operates as an elastic band 
or ring to close the duct ; below this are several other 
bands of concentric muscular fiber, and around the duct, 
lengthwise of the teat, are arranged numerous other 
fibers. The whole of the structure of the glands is sup- 
plied abundantly with nerves. 

From this description of the milk glands and the fur- 
ther account of the functions and character of the ulti- 
mate cells of the gland vesicles or lobules given in a 
previous chapter, their delicate and sensitive nature can 
be readily understood. The large supply of blood which 
passes through the glandular substance from the impor- 
tant artery which supplies the whole reproductive system, 
renders it remarkably sensitive to any disturbances of the 
circulation, or any accidental local derangement. In- 
flammation arising from excessive circulation and supply 
of blood is accompanied by engorgement of the fine 
capillary vessels and blood may then pass directly into 
the secretory glands, and thence with the cell matter into 



DISEASES OF COWS. 441 

the duct3 and become mingled with the milk. This ex- 
plains the cause of bloody milk which is sometimes given 
by cows, or at times becomes a permanent product of 
♦ young cows whose mammary glands are in an abnormal 
or undeveloped condition. It also explains how the sensi- 
tive mucous membrane, abundantly supplied with blood 
in the minute circulating vessels, when in an inflam- 
matory condition from any cause, secretes an excessive 
quantity of mucus, and hence we may have ropy milk ; 
which is milk containing so excessive a mixture of 
mucus as to become adherent and stringy. Or when 
this ropy, glutinous, adherent mass fills the ducts, and 
no milk can pass through them, the lobular masses 
become engorged and tumefied, the udder becomes 
swollen and hard and painful from the tension upon 
the sensitive tissue, the gathered matter is absorbed 
into the connective tissue and the capillary vessels, and 
we have a development of garget or inflamed and tumefied 
udder in its worst form. 

Unless speedily relieved, the fine secretory cells be- 
come obliterated in, a growth of hardened fibrous tissue, 
and the gland, so far as this may occur, loses perma- 
nently its power of yielding milk, and a part of the 
udder may, as we sometimes find, become spoiled for 
future use and permanently dried up. In bad cases the 
cellular matter breaks down into pus which burrows 
through the gland, forming an abscess, or several of them, 
by which the products of the inflammation escape. This 
involves destruction of the glandular substance, tlie lob- 
ular masses are destroyed, and the productive ability of 
the udder is in greater or less part lost beyond restora- 
tion. The structure of the teat and of the fibrous bands 
enveloping the glands explains how the cow is able tore- 
tain the milk or let it down, as is done in the operation 
of milking. The whole muscular part of the udder is 
under the control of a system of voluntary nerves. The 



442 THE dairyman's manual. 

cow can draw tight the sphincter muscle which closes 
the outlet of the main lactiferous reservoir at the base of 
the teat. She can contract the muscular bands which 
support the whole udder, and so compress the whole ar- 
rangement of the ducts as to prevent the flow of milk. 
Or wiien, by reason of weakness of the sphincter muscle 
or by the will of the cow, it is loosened, the passage is 
opened for the escape of the milk, and it leaks away 
and is lost. Sometimes, on the other hand, when the fine 
membrane lining the teat is injured, and tumors or 
lumps are produced and the duct is obstructed, the 
cause may be easily understood. Or when the skin at 
tlie outer orifice of the teat scales off, as it is apt to do, 
and the. milk spatters and spreads instead of flowing 
with an even stream, we may recognize the cause of the 
trouble from knowing the precise method in which the 
teat is constructed. 

TREATMEI^T OF MAMMITIS OR GARGET. 

An attack of garget requires instant treatment; neglect 
may cause serious results, while immediate care may soon 
overcome the trouble. The treatment varies somewhat 
according to the peculiar character of the attack ; and 
this differs greatly as the causes differ. The causes of 
garget, in which may be included all the forms of the 
disease, are constitutional tendency to inflammatory 
disease ; overfeeding with stimulating food, such as 
cotton-seed meal, which readily provokes it ; inflamma- 
tion resulting from cold, as exposure to cold rains soon 
after calving or by lying upon damp cold ground ; exces- 
sive muscular strain, as by chasing around when the 
udder is filled ; retention of milk, either purposely done 
by the owner, or by the cow withholding the milk ; and 
lastly, by a sort of reflex action upon the milk glands 
produced by a generally diseased condition of the cow 



DISEASES OE COWS. 44(J 

which disturbs the circulation and forces it excessively 
in this direction, or which produces a diseased and irri,- 
tant condition of the blood. 

It is readily seen that each of these conditions may 
call for a different treatment, and that it would not be 
difficult for the owner of a cow to do mischief by adopt- 
ing the advice of a neighbor or friend, who might have, 
at one time, procured relief in a case having an entirely 
different origin, by the use of some particular treatment 
or remedial agent. In some cases it is very clear that 
medicine might be required. For instance, when the 
trouble is caused by some disease of the blood and 
this is removed the secondary effects may disappear. In 
some cases mechanical treatment only may be needed, as 
when the vessels and ducts have become engorged and 
the milk has clotted in them, and an alkaline injection 
would dissolve the solid caseous matter and enable it to 
be drawn away. In other cases both this treatment and 
medicine would be needed, .as when the blood is in an 
acid condition during a feverish state of the system, and 
alkaline salts may be given internally and injected into 
the udder as well. 

Sometimes soothing outward applications may be re- 
quisite, as when muscular strains or accidental blows have 
caused the trouble; and at other times when suppuration 
is probable some absorbent agent, such as iodine, may be 
applied, and an antiseptic medicine given internally. In 
this case warm fomentations would be useful, and it may 
even be advisable to apply hot poultices and to suppo]-t 
the udder by a broad bandage carried under it and over 
the loins. When it is necessary to draw the milk from a 
disordered udder, a silver milking tube may be used, 
which is inserted in the teat and through it the milk 
flows by its own gravity. This treatment overcomes 
any obstinate interference by the cow with the flow of 
milk, and brings it down in spite of her objections. 



444 THE DAIRTMAN^S MAKUAL. 

"When the milk is too ropy and clotted to be drawn in 
this way, an injection of one teaspoonful of carbonate of 
soda (common baking soda) or saleratus, dissolved in a 
pint or half a pint of warm water, may be injected into 
the udder through the teats. This will dissolve the 
thickened milk and enable it to be drawn either by the 
milking tube or by the hands or fingers. These methods 
will be applicable whenever the udder requires to be re- 
lieved of its contents, unduly retained from whatever 
cause. 

When the cow is in a fevered condition, or the udder 
is greatly inflamed, tender and hot, a cooling saline med- 
icine will be useful ; this may be a pound of Epsom or 
Glauber salts, and if the fever is very considerable, one 
ounce of saltpeter may be added. A saline diuretic, 
such as saltpeter, will always relieve an inflamed udder, 
as it increases the action of the kidneys and so reduces 
the activity of the milk-secreting glands. 

When the udder is in a suppurative condition, and the 
matter drawn from the teats is mixed with pus, hyposul- 
phite of soda will be beneficial; this is an effective anti- 
septic and prevents danger from the absorption of pus 
into the blood. This salt is given in one-ounce doses 
daily and should be continued until all danger is re- 
moved. A mixture of four ounces of glycerine, with 
one dram of iodide of potassium, dissolved in as little 
water as is necessary to make the solution, will be useful 
to disperse a threatened abscess, or to soften the udder 
when it is very hard from an obstinately congested con- 
dition. The iodine is an active absorbent and has been 
used in such cases with the best effect. A portion 
of this mixture is well rubbed into the skin of the 
udder after it has been fomented with hot water, and 
wiped dry with a soft towel. The udder is gently 
pressed and kneaded with the hands during the rub- 
bing. Camphorated soap liniment, well rubbed into th.e 



DISEASES OF COWS. 445 

udder after fomentation, is also useful in mild cases. 
To draw the milk from the udder is indispensable, and 
the milking tube should be used if necessary. When a 
portion of the udder becomes tumefied, fomentations of 
hot water, or a hot poultice of linseed meal applied to 
the part by means of a broad bandage covering the udder 
and brought lip over the back and securely fastened there 
and behind the buttocks, will be advisable. These rem- 
edies are only suggested for use with such cows as may 
be affected with garget. It is impossible to mention 
particularly the right treatment for every special case. 
Ordinary judgment and reason must be used to meet 
each particular case when treatment is found necessary. 

. VACCINE VARIOLA — COW POX. 

One of the most annoying diseases to which cows are 
subject is pox, or variola. It would be trifling in its 
effect upon the cow were it not that it affects the teats 
and renders milking difficult or almost impossible, and 
that when it appears in a herd it goes through the whole 
of it. Gliis disease is an eruptive, contagious fever, com- 
municated by a special virus or germ reproduced by the 
disease. The history of the disease is as follows : 

When the owner of a cow is milking the animal, he 
discovers that she is uneasy and restless, and on search- 
ing for the cause may find one or more hard nodules in 
the skin of the teat, which are painful to the cow when 
pressed. Tlie milk also falls off somewhat in quantity. 
In a few days these nodules appear at the surface in the 
form of round, inflamed spots, somewhat raised above 
the skin, and depressed or pitted in the center. The 
form and position of these spots are similar to that 
shown in the engraving, figure 105, and they usually 
appear upon the teats in the position shown. In three 
QY four days the spots are found to contain liquid matter. 



446 



THE dairyman's MANUAL. 



and, if care is not taken, are broken and may become raw 
sores which are difficult to heal, which, in fact, sometimes 
result very disastrously and even fatally. 

By and by the contained liquid becomes a thick yel- 
lowish pus vdiich dries into a scab, and this in time 
becomes loose and falls off, being replaced by newly- 
formed skin. When one case is out of the way another 
appears, and in a herd of twenty or more it may continue 
the whole summer in its passage through the herd, 
giving constant annoyance. During the progress of the 
disease the udder is inflamed and tender, and the teats 
are quite painful when pressed; so much so that milking 








Fig. 105.— APPEARANCE OF COW POX. A. — MILKING TUBE. 

in the usual manner is impossible. Recourse is then had 
to milking tubes. 

This disease is readily communicated to mankind and 
to horses, and spreads from cow to cow, being usually 
conveyed by the milker, whose hands and clothing soon 
become infected with the virus. The matter contained 
in the vesicles is the true vaccine virus used for inoculat- 
ing persons as an antidote to the more dreaded and viru- 
lent small-pox, and in its effect upon mankind occasions 
no worse disturbance than the slight fever and some- 
times glandular swellings incident to the operation of 
vaccination. The virus will often remain permanently 
in a stable, and will cause every heifer which comes to 
milk in it to contract the disease, When this is found 



DISEASES OF COWS. • 447 

to be the case the stable should be thoroughly disinfected 
by burniDg sulphur in it very liberally, sprinkling carbolic 
acid freely over the floors, and thoroughly whitewashing 
the walls and the stall and other furniture. 

The treatment of the disease is very simple, if precau- 
tions are used to prevent the rupture or forcible removal 
of the vesicles or scabs before the contained matter has 
dried and hardened. This is best done by the use of the 
milking tubes and by softening the teats and allaying 
the irritation by cooling, emollient applications, such as 
the simple cerate of the druggists or the prepared cos- 
moline or vaseline jelly which is both emollient and 
antiseptic, being a preparation from petroleum. The 
only medicine required is a daily dose of one ounce of 
hyposuljDhite of soda in the feed, given as long as the 
eruption lasts. The same may be given to the other 
cows or 'heifers in the dairy or stable as a jDreventive 
or as a means of very much lightening the results of 
an attack upon them. During the continuance of the 
disease the effect upon the' milk is either imperceptible 
or very light. When at the first inception the udder 
becomes hard and inflamed the milk curdles prematurely 
and will often thicken if brought to a heat of 150 degrees. 
There will sometimes be white specks in the butter 
caused by the coagulation of portions of the milk, and 
perhaps by the presence of secreted matter in it ; but in 
general there is nothing in the niilk that would indicate 
that the cow was ailing in any way. Nevertheless, as the 
ailment is a blood disease, and the blood has been sub- 
jected to the action of a special virus by which the 
disease has been produced, and as the milk is a direct 
product from the blood, it is at least subject to suspicion 
and should not be used by persons who are particular as 
to tlie purity and wholesome character of their food, 
which they are wise in demanding should be above 
suspicion. 



448 THE dairyman's manual. 

The duration of the disease is from ten to twenty days, 
and if the cow is kept warm and free from exposure to 
rain or inclement weather, no complication is likely to 
occur. In some cases the disease passes off with a very 
slight eruption, a mere pustule followed by a scab upon 
one teat only, and that of a very inconsiderable character, 
being observable, and the owner of the cow never sus- 
pecting the nature of the slight trouble, even should he 
give it a passing thought. But as cases are by no means 
rare in which the disease has spread very quickly to 
other cows, and these have experienced a more serious 
indisposition, it is wise for the dairyman to be on his 
guard and use all necessary precautions as soon as he. 
perceives the first indications of the disease in the herd. 
Then the sick animal should be isolated. She should be 
milked after all the others, or the person who milks her 
should not approach the other cows, and the precau- 
tionary dose of hyposulphite of soda above mentioned 
should be given daily for at least ten days, gradually 
reducing it after that down to one-fourth the quantity 
mentioned. 

OBSTRUCTED TEATS. 

Small tumors occasionally form in the milk ducts 
along the teats and interfere with the milking, or at 
times quite close the passage. These usually come to a^ 
head and break and give no more trouble, but sometimes 
they form a permanent enlargement and become a serious 
impediment to the milking. The use of a milking tube 
serves to remove the obstruction temjDorarily, but when a 
permanent obstacle forms it is removed by means of a 
blunt-end steel probe, having, an inch below the end, 
triangular sharp edges projecting slightly so as to cut 
the obstacle and form a passage, which is kept open 
daring the healing by means of a wooden plug wliich is 
inserted into the duct between the milkings; the milking 



DISEASES OP COWS. 449 

being done by means of a tube. This plug is provided 
with a head to prevent its slipping wholly into the teat. 

FISTULA OF TEAT. 

When an opening forms in the side of the teat, through 
which the milk escapes during the milking, it is known 
as fistula. It is removed by carefully dissecting the skin 
around the opening, and into it, as far as possible, when 
the ojDening is enlarged by a slight cut at each side; the 
edges of the wound are drawn together by stitches, one 
safe one being put through the part where the fistula 
existed. When the wound heals the opening is closed. 
This must be done when the cow is dry. 

DISEASED MILK. 

Milk is subject to several imperfections resulting from 
various diseases of the udder or from constitutional and 
blood disorders. The most common of these imper- 
fections is 

Bloody Milh. — This is caused mostly by physical in- 
juries to the udder, as violent exercise, blows, stepping 
upon it by other cows while the one is lying down, etc., 
etc. In such cases the trouble is temporary and disap- 
pears upon fomentation with hot water and the applica- 
tion of a stimulating liniment. It is sometimes due to 
defective action of the secretory glands, which may be 
temporary or permanent, but is usually temjDorary and is 
quickly remedied by giving a cooling laxative and alter- 
ative, as a pound of Epsom salts with one ounce of hypo- 
sulphite of soda, following, for a week or ten days. 

Blue and Watery Milh is an indication of the serious 
disease known as tuberculosis. As this disease is infec- 
tious and generally fatal in course of a few months, and 
the milk is quite unfit for food in some cases, a careful 
investigation should be made to discover if this disease is 



450 THE DAIRYMAN S MANUAL. 

present. If it is so found, the animal should be at once 
slaughtered and buried deej^ly as a means of safety from 
its spread among the herd or from worse effects upon 
persons who might use the milk. Other indications of 
the disease are emaciation, dullness, dry harsh skin, 
swollen glands under the jaws, paleness of the mem- 
branes, sunken dull eyes, and a mawkish or fetid breath. 
Sometimes cows give a bluish-colored watery milk as a 
natural peculiarity, but sucli animals, although free from 
disease, are unprofi table and should be quickly weeded 
out of the herd. 

MILK FEVER. 

This disease is one of the most serious that affect dairy 
cows and has been a subject of study and discussion 
among veterinarians for fully a century. It occurs 
mostly among the best class of cows and the most pro- 
ductive milkers, and usually appears from twelve or 
twenty-four hours after calving up to the third day. 
There are no premonitory symptoms, excepting a dimin- 
ished flow of milk or a total and sudden cessation of it. 
The first apparent symptoms are drooping of the head, 
whisking of the tail, general uneasiness, striking at the 
belly with the feet, loss of appetite, and cessation of 
rumination. A shivering fit com.monly occurs. Some- 
times the cow stands with the head pressed against the 
front of the stall and exhibits all the attitudes of intense 
stupor — the mouth is hot, the eyes red, and there is an 
unconscious treading motion of the hind feet. Breath- 
ing becomes rapid, the animal is unable to stand and 
falls to the floor, or lies down heavily. Quite often the 
cow is supposed to be all right until she is found down, 
lying on the side or resting on the brisket, with the head 
turned around to the flank and lying stiffly with the 
nose close to the belly. The muscles of the neck are 



DISEASES OF COWS. 451 

contracted and the neck is rigidly bent so that the head 
cannot be moved from this position. This symptom is 
typical of the disease, and gives rise to one popular name 
for it, viz.: '^^ Dropping after Calving." Stupor be- 
comes more and more intense and the animal falls into a 
comatose condition from which it rarely recovers. There 
is no fever, and the temperature falls below the normal; 
the feet, ears and horns are exceedingly cold, and the 
movements of the bowels are suspended. If the animal 
recovers, these symptoms may be continued for as long as 
four days ; if death does not ensue in two days recovery 
may be hoped for. In this case the cow seems to sud- 
denly awake from its stupor, raises its head, and after 
some struggles rises upon its feet and stands. When 
the movement of the bowels returns recovery is assured. 
When, on the other hand, death is approaching, thecoma 
becomes more intense, the head sinks and rests upon the 
ground or it sways from side to side, the eye is glassy 
and insensible to the touch, the belly becomes swollen 
with gas, the breathing is hard, and the animal dies 
easily or with some slight convulsions. In this disease 
the deaths are about forty-five to fifty per cent ; the 
largest proportion being those cases which occur the 
soonest after calving. When two days elapse before 
the attack, recovery may be looked for. 

The causes of the disease being known one may exer- 
cise precautions against it. As it is chiefly the highly 
bred, heavy milking, or large bodied plethoric cows 
which are attacked, great caution should be observed 
with these to avoid high feeding for a few weeks before 
calving. Or when cows have been permitted to fall off 
in condition for months previous to the calving, the 
feeding should be very carefully increased up to the 
period when calving is looked for. Close confinement is 
to be avoided, and abundant exercise should be given to 
incoming cows. Generally whatever will lower the con- 



452 THE DAIEYMAN^'S MANUAL. 

ditioii of vitality or excite the circulation in internal 
organs, checking the action in the skin and extremities, 
should be carefully avoided. 

The treatment is chiefly mechanical. Every effort 
should be used to increase the action of the skin and 
the circulation in the limbs by the application of 
ammonia liniment, or of mustard to the back along the 
spine, a wet sheet wrapped around the body and covered 
with blankets, and the application over the blanket of 
hot flat-irons along the si^ine and loins, with brisk rub- 
bing, of the limbs and applications of turj)entine, or hot 
water by means of flannel cloths steeped in it, wrapped 
around the limbs. If the bloating is severe the paunch 
should be opened with a small-bladed knife or a trocar 
(fig, 106, p. 4:62) inserted on the left side, at a point equi- 
distant from the point of the hip bone, the last rib and the 
backbone, and penetrating downwards to avoid the kid- 
ney and lumbar muscles. Injections of warm soapsuds 
after the bowel has been emptied manurally are to be 
given, and half a pint of whisky with one ounce of tinct- 
ure of camphor has been serviceable when medicines by 
the mouth have failed. In short, the treatment of this 
disease must include relief to the brain from the prevail- 
ing congestion, stimulating the functions of the skin, 
promoting the action of the intestines, stimulating the 
lower nervous system, the spine and the lumbar nerves, 
removing the milk and stimulating the action of the 
udder. When the disorder is relieved the animal should 
be nursed back to strength by means of mild tonics and 
small but frequent rations of easily digested and nutri- 
tious food. 

MILK SICKN'ESS. 

'^Milk sick" is a mysterious disease, a peculiar charac- 
teristic of it being that the infected cows escape, while 
the calves and persons who use the milk suffer, and in 



DISEASES OF COWS. 453 

frequent cases perish, by the poisoning. Male cattle take 
the disease, which poisons the flesh and renders it un- 
wholesome for food, while cows enjoy impunity in the 
escape of the poison through the milk. 

Half a century ago, when there were far more undrained 
swamp, impure water, and malaria than there are now, 
there were many more cases of the disorder than there 
have been of recent years. Then the very buzzards, the 
hogs, the turkeys, and the dogs and cats that ate of 
the carcasses of animals which had died of the disease 
themselves died of milk sickness. Cats, dogs, calves, 
and chickens that drank the milk or ate the flesh of cows 
suffering from the malady staggered around weakly for 
days and died. Many people died of the disease, induced 
by eating butter or drinking milk from diseased cows. 

Then the theory was held that the ailment was caused 
by eating some plant that appeared late in the season. 
Others believed that the cause might be found in the 
earth licked up by the stock at what are known as salt- 
licks. Still others believed that cattle were poisoned by 
eating grass on which some mineral, carried up with 
moisture from the earth during the warm hours of the 
day, settled with the dew in the cool evening and night ; 
and yet others were of the opinion that the disease was 
induced by the drinking of water from stagnant pools 
or from impure streams. The early settler sometimes 
fenced about the spots where observation taught him 
the germs of the malady lurked. In time the land 
around these spots was plowed and seeded, water was 
drained off, and the fences rotted and fell, the plow com- 
pleted the work of purification, and the previous existence 
of the disease was forgotten. 

Milk sickness is known in many of the States lying 
east of the Mississippi River; it also exists on the north 
side of the Blue Ridge and among its foothills in Western 
North Carolina and Georgia. In the great valley of 



454 THE dairyman's manual. 

East Tennessee it is also found in the foothills, where 
the pastures are rich and moist and the growth of grass 
vigorous. There is no doubt that the malady has pre- 
vailed longer and more extensively in the southern parts 
of Indiana and Illinois than in any other part of the land. 
It appeared regularly each year, usually, if not invariably, 
in the dry, warm weeks of the closing summer, when the 
streams were low and the water supply was generally 
stagnant and festering with noxious germs. Human 
beings and stock besides neat cattle have received 
the germs of the malady from sources other than the 
milk or the butter of affected cows. Indeed, people who 
did not use milk or butter have died o*f the disorder, and 
swine and dogs that had no access to such food have 
done the same. In view of these facts the theory may 
he entertained that the cause is not found in noxious 
weeds, as has been held by some, nor can it; be grass or a 
mineral poison like arsenic, as has been believed. 

In the second annual report of the Bureau of Animal 
Industry an account is given of the discoveries made by 
Dr. Joseph Gardner, of Lawrence County, Indiana, in 
his investigations of milk sickness. Describing the re- 
sults of a microscopic examination of the blood from a 
heifer suffering from the malady, Dr. Gardner said : " I 
was startled but not surprised to see that in the small 
space embraced in the field, and which could be covered 
by a transverse section of a fine cambric needle, there 
were countless multitudes of actively moving, writhing, 
twisting bacteria that bore, in size and behavior, a strik- 
ing resemblance to that form of bacteria called by natur- 
alists Bacteria suUillissima. They seemed to cling to 
the blood disks, to be between them, to be within some 
of them, and to be in such an innumerable multitude 
as to fairly fill the observer with horror at the bare 
thought that the blood of even a domesticated animal 
should have such terrible inmates. Some dogs ate of 



DISEASES OF COWS. 455 

the dead -cow, and they too were attacked by the ^ slows' 
and their blood showed the same form of bacteria. " 

Knowing that some of the family owning the sick cow 
had not partaken of milk or butter, but had nevertheless 
suffered from the disease, Dr. Gardner examined with 
his microscope the water taken from the springs from 
which the family drank, and found that it appeared clear 
and pure to the unaided eye, but was filled by the same 
forms of bacteria that swarmed in the blood of the cow. 
In another family a case of milk sickness had occurred. 
Dr. Gardner examined some gf the milk he took from a 
cow whose milk was used by the patients, and found in 
it just such living organisms as he discovered in the blood 
and water. Afterward he found the same bacteria, but 
in smaller numbers, in the blood of two persons not se- 
verely attacked. In giving his account of his studies of 
this malady, Dr. Gardner said that milk sickness never 
prevails in wet seasons, when springs are flush and 
streams are full. He was not willing to assert that water 
is the only medium outside of animals in which the bac- 
teria may propagate in sufficient quantities to cause the 
disease to manifest itself, ^"^but," said he, 'Sve may rest 
assured that if the cattle and the families have water of 
unquestioned purity the other sources and uses will not 
be prominent factors in its production." He added that 
gastritis and bilious fever are the only diseases the physi- 
cian will be likely to confound with milk sickness. The 
treatment he adopted consisted of the administration, 
each two hours, of full doses of brandy and honey, or 
sirup, with sulphur, and magnesia. The patients quickly 
recovered. This treatment is the same as that used in 
the Blue Ridge localities of west North Carolina and 
Georgia where the disease prevails. 

It seems to be important that consumers shall be 
warned of the danger that may lie in consuming milk, 
butter or meats from districts in which milk sickness 



456 THE DAIRYMAN S MAITUAL. 

appears, and that physicians, even in places remote from 
spots where that disorder originates, shall be ready to rec- 
ognize it whenever it may appear, and understand its nature 
and proper treatment. There is certainly some danger, 
although it may be doubted whether there is sufficient 
warrant for the assertion which has been made to the 
effect that each year hundreds die in places far from the 
localities where the cause of their death originates, from 
the use of meats, butter or cheese containing the germs 
of the disease ; for the meats and dairy products from 
localities infected by the scourge have to seek a market 
away from home, and consequently find their way to the 
larger towns. Nevertheless, the author, who has had an 
opportunity of observing and studying this disease in the 
rich valleys of the Southern mountain region, has found 
it exceedingly prevalent there, and the resident physicians 
and even the people themselves look for it as a matter of 
course in the summer and fall months. Deaths fre- 
quently occur from the use of infected milk and many 
persons are to be seen whose systems have been perma- 
nently weakened by the poison. From its peculiarity 
there is no means of prevention except avoiding places 
known to be subject to it, or of avoiding the use of milk 
and butter from cows pastured where the disease may be 
suspected to exist. 

EYERSION OF THE UTERUS. 

A rather common disorder in dairies is the prolapsus 
or eversion of the womb. Sometimes this disorder goes 
no further than the ejection of the vagina ; but in any 
case it is apt to be troublesome, as the nature of it is not 
understood. The disturbance is first noticed by the ap- 
pearance of a red soft tumor between the lips of the 
vulva as the animal is lying, or the whole organ may be 
found protruded and dragging in the filth of the gutter or 
stable floor. By an easily recognized corruption of terms 



DISEASES OF COWS. 457 

this accident is pojDularly known as '^falling of the 
withers." It occurs mostly after calving, when the os 
w/en or opening of the organ is dilated. The malady 
has been known for ages and an ancient Roman veterina- 
rian (Vegetiiis), writing of it, made the useful sugges- 
tion to use an inflated pig's bladder as a means of pres- 
sure to retain the organ after its return to its position. 

The treatment is as follows. The ors^an is to be care- 
fully washed with warm water and returned through the 
orifice gradually by the fingers — the nails having been 
closely pared to avoid injury. The organ is to be held 
and supported meanwhile on a sheet held by assistants, 
and when in a proper position the extremity of it is pushed 
into the opening by the closed fist ; the uterus folding 
in upon itself by the pressure as it is carried into its j)lace. 
When the uterus has been returned to its position it is 
held there by means of a bandage across the hind parts, 
so arranged as to support it without interfering with the 
evacuations. To repress spasmodic efforts to expel the 
organ, laudanum is given in doses of two ounces each, re- 
peated at intervals of two hours if necessary. As the 
trouble is almost sure to occur with the next calf, cows 
subject to it should be fattened off as soon as may be. 

RETENTION OF F(ETA.L MEMBRAKES OR AFTER-BIRTH. 

This is a very common trouble in dairies and occurs 
more frequently with cows than with any other animals. 
The reason for this is that the foetal membranes of the 
cow are attached to the surface of the uterus, for their 
support, by a large number of broad attachments called 
cotyledons, varying from forty to a hundred ; these at 
times adb.ere quite firmly, and some of them do not sepa- 
rate until after the os uteri has closed and holds the 
membranes partly ejected and partly retained. The 
trouble, however, is not serious, unless through some 



458 THE dairyman's MAiq^UAL. 

complication, and generally disappears by the- slow decom- 
position and discharge or absorption of the membranes. 
But it is disagreeable and at times injurious to the cows, 
because of the absorption of the fetid matter, and the 
effect of this upon the milk, as well as upon the health 
of the cow. The cause of this defect is supposed to be 
the earliness of the calving and the immaturity of the 
preparatory condition of the uterus. When the birth is 
a few days after the average time there is rarely any 
trouble of this kind. It has also been found that when 
a cow retains the membranes with the first calf, it is apt 
to do so always afterwards. The use of moldy fodder is 
believed to promote this retention, and there are many 
other popular opinions in this regard which have no foun- 
dation in fact. 

The treatment proper under the special circumstatices 
varies with the nature of the case. If there are no com- 
plications and the cow performs her functions satisfac- 
toiily, the membranes may be left for a week or ten days 
until they part naturally; but if fever or other disturb- 
ance of the system occurs, and the animal is suffering, 
then assistance is called for. This may be afforded by 
giving one of the following infusions: 

4 ouDces of laurel berries, 

2 " " anise seed, 

4 " *' bicarbonate of soda, 

steeped in four quarts of water and given in two doses, 
with twelve hours between. If necessary it is repeated, 
but usually it is effective within twenty-four hours. Or, 

1 ounce of savin leaves, 

i " " carbonate of potassa, 

in one pint of water. The decoction is strained and 
given lukewarm; the dose is repeated every six hours. Or, 

8 ounces of powdered savin, 
6 " " molasses, 
4 *' *' powdered cumin, 
24 " " essence of rue, 
2i " " " «' savin, 

2 quarts of alcohol. 



DISEASES OF COWS. 459 

This tincture, well infused, is given in doses of three 
ounces, in two quarts of infusion of savin leaves. 

The removal of the membranes by manual force is 
r-ecommended when they are wholly or in greater part re- 
tained, and are causing serious injury. This is done as 
follows : A person with a small hand and arm, which are 
well oiled, takes hold of the exposed portion of the 
membranes with the left hand and follows them into 
the uterus with the right hand. Feeling cautiously for 
the attachments, each one is carefully separated until all 
are loosened, when they come away immediately without 
any further trouble. In case of partial retention of the 
membranes one ounce of hyposulphite of soda may be 
given daily as an antiseptic to prevent harm by the ab- 
sorption of the retained matter. 

TUMOKS OF THE JAW. 

The frequently occurring hard swellings on the jaw are 
caused by a disease of the jawbone which is contagious, 
and is produced by a special germ which lives and grows 
at the expense of the bony substance. It is known as 
actino imjkosis, or ''lump-jaw." It is constitutional 
and descends by heredity. It first appears as a small 
nodule upon the side of the face or on the jawbone. 
This grows gradually into a large tumor which dis- 
charges extremely fetid pus, known by its odor to come 
from the decaying bone. The progress of the disease is 
slow but sure. The jaw is gradually eaten away and 
the animal perishes from inability to eat. The disease, 
however, is not always fatal, as it lias been known to suc- 
cumb to antiseptic treatment when in its early stages. 
Some valuable animals, treated by advice of the author 
with hyposulphite of soda m one-ounce doses daily, 
continued for three months, have gradually recovered, 
without any permanent injury or blemish. 



460 THE dairyman's MAKlTAli. 

Sometimes the disease attacks the tongue, which be- 
comes swollen and sloughs away until the animal perishes. 
In this form of the disorder the antiseptic treatment 
undertaken at the outset is the only hope of saving the 
animal. Animais having this constitutional taint should 
never be used for breeding purposes. 

APHTHA. 

This disorder affects the lips and tongue, producing 
painful blisters which break and form raw sores; the tip 
of the tongue may also be affected so that the animal 
cannot eat and falls off in condition and milk very 
rapidly. The disease readily yields to simple treatment. 
A pound of Epsom salts, followed twenty-four hours 
afterwards by two-dram doses of chlorate of potash, 
daily for a few days, usually brings about a cure. The 
sores are washed twice daily with a solution of two drams 
of the chlorate in a quart of water. While under treat- 
ment the animal should be fed soft nutritious food. 

An epizoutic form of this disease is quite common in 
England, but so far no case of it has been known to 
occur in America. It is known as ^^foot and mouth 
disease," the feet also being affected in a similar manner 
as the lips and tongue ; blisters and "raw sores breaking 
out around the coronet and in the cleft of the feet. As 
this disease may be imported at any time, it will be 
well to describe the nature and treatment of it. It 
appears first by a shivering fit, followed by fever, hot 
inflamed mouth and lips, lameness of the feet, and ten- 
derness of the udder and teats. In two days large blisters 
appear on the lips, feet and teats, and the animal suffers 
greatly. The disease has a period of about two weeks, 
when tlie symptoms abate and finally disappear, leaving, 
however, its germs of contagion hidden in the building 
and the fields, for the infection of fresh victims. Death 
rarely ensues; but the cows are often rendered useless 



DISEASES OF COWS. 461 

for tlie dairy. The only treatment is palliative. A dose 
of Epsom salts, the chlorate of potash mentioned above, 
with the chlorate wash for the mouth. A solution of 
borax — two ounces in a quart of water — wdth two ounces 
of honey and one dram of carbolic acid added, may be 
applied to the feet, which should be kept bandaged. 

ERGOTISM. 

This disorder is produced by feeding smutty corn 
fodder or ergoted grass, and in some cases by means of 
musty hay or other food. The result is vesicular erup- 
tions of the mouth and gangrene of the feet. Outbreaks 
of this disease have been mistaken for foot and mouth 
disease ; but no intelligent person, much less a veteri- 
narian, should be led into this error. For the gangrene 
of the feet is entirely different from the watery blisters 
in epizootic aphtha, and appears as a ring of dead tissue 
which gradually becomes- deeper and deeper until the 
hoof falls off and finally the feet separate, leaving the 
animals entirely helpless. There is no cure for this dis- 
order when it takes on this serious form, but in its early 
stages cure is possible by means of cooling purgatives to 
clear the system of the poison and soothing, healing 
applications to the diseased surfaces. A mixture of 
tincture of myrrh and glycerine painted on the sores 
will relieve the pairi and lead to recovery. 

BLOATING (indigestion). 

When cattle are fed to repletion upon wet green fodder 
fermentation takes place in the paunch with the evolu- 
tion of a large quantity of carbonic acid gas, which dis- 
tends the stomach and causes it to press dangerously 
upon the lungs and interfere with the breathing. Un- 
less relieved, the animal quickly dies of suffocation. As 



462 



THE dairyman's MANUAL. 



an immediate and safe cure is possible, it is useless to 
waste time in trying questionable remedies. This cure 
is to perforate the paunch at the 
point of its greatest distension with 
an instrument known as a trocar, 
which is contained in a separate tube 
called a canula (figure 106). This 
instrument is plunged into the paunch 
at a point equidistant from the point 
of the hip, the last rib and the loin ; 
being the center of a triangle drawn 
from these points to each other. The 
trocar should be pointed downwards 
to escape the kidneys and the muscles 
of the loin. It is then drawn out, 
leaving the canula in the wound. It 
will help to relieye the animal to 
pour through the canula into the 
paunch a quart of a solution of car- 
bonate of ammonia, or a solution of 
two ounces of hyposulphite of soda in 
a i^int of water ; either of which will 
stop the fermentation and relieve 
the bloating. Food should be given 
sparingly for a few days after this 
until the stomach recovers its tone. 
As has been observed, ^^ prevention 
is better than cure," and this accident 
or mistake is most easily prevented by ordinary caution 
and care in feeding or pasturing green fodder. 

CHOKING. 

When feeding roots or apples, carelessness, so common 
among hired help, may lead to the accidental stoppage 
of the gullet by a piece of the food which has been 
swallowed whole. This is easily prevented by chopping 




Fig. 106. 



DISEASES OF COWS. 463 

such food finely in a box by means of a spade with the 
edge sharpened and feeding it with a little ground 
meal, or finely cut hay or grass. When an accident of 
this kind does happen it is repaired very quickly by 
crushing the obstacle in the throat in this manner : A 
block of smooth thin board is placed upon each side of 
the gullet over the obstacle, one person holds a heavy 
block to one side of the throat and another person gives 
the opposite block a smart blow with a mallet. This 
crushes the soft piece of root without injuring the gullet; 
if it is slightly bruised, it will heal in a few days, and the 
injury will be less than that resulting from the use of a 
probang by which the obstacle is violently forced down- 
wards into the stomach. 

DIARRHEA. 

Nature always makes efforts for its own relief, and 
diarrhea is the result of an effort of this kind to relieve 
the bowels from some offensive matter. It may, how- 
ever, be the effect of a diseased condition of the bowels, 
as in tuberculosis, when the functions of the bowels are 
disturbed and the food passes through in an undigested 
state. But in the great majority of cases it is caused 
by overfeeding and consequent indigestion. Calves 
gorged with milk, or given cold or sour milk when used 
to warm and sweet milk, or under other sudden change 
in the feeding, suffer seriously from tliis disorder. Cows 
that are gorged with grain or immature fodder, or sup- 
plied with impure water, become diseased in the same 
manner. 

The remedy is to give a gentle purgative, soft and 
emollient and soothing to the irritated membranes. A 
pint of raw linseed oil is useful, and should he followed 
by well boiled oatmeal or linseed gruel, with soft easily 
digested food given in small quantities. After the 
diarrhea is reduced, a tonic should be given ; as one 



464 THE dairyman's manual. 

dram each of powdered sulphate of iron, gentian, and 
ginger root, given in a bran mash or cut feed once a 
day. For calves three months old or less, a quart, and 
no more, of new milk warmed to 100 degrees may be given 
twice a day. If the diarrhea is accompanied by spasms, 
twenty drops of a mixture of two drams of tincture of 
rhubarb, one dram of tincture of opium, and one dram 
of tincture of camphor, may be giyen in a little hot 
new milk and repeated every two hours until the 
spasms cease. If this cessation does not ensue after 
three doses, double the quantity. For calves over three 
months old the above doses may be trebled. 

IMPACTION OF THE STOMACH. INDIGESTION. 

When food is not digested it remains in the stomach, 
usually in the third compartment or '^manifolds," where 
it causes inflammation of the lining membrane, and, dry- 
ing by the heat, forms a hard mass or cakes between the 
folds of the stomach. This arrest of the digestive func- 
tions and the consequent disturbance of the nervous 
system give rise to serious disorder, popularly termed 
'^ dry murrain." Suspended rumination (loss of cud) 
follows first, distress from the pain, and finally stupor 
or frenzy from the resulting congestion of the brain. 
"When stupor occurs the animal rests in a state of drowsi- 
ness, with the head pressed against a wall, fence or other 
support ; if frenzy;, the animal bellows, dashes itself 
about, breaking the horns and bruising the head madly, 
until death ensues in a few hours. Over-feeding upon 
wet grass, rank fodder, smutty cornstalks, dry stalks in 
a corn stubble, or any other food that is not digestible is 
the n^ost frequent cause of this disorder. 

Active purgatives As-ith copious doses of thin gruels 
and stimulants are required. Two pounds of Epsom or 
Glauber salts dissolved in two quarts of warm water is 
to be given. Molasses added freely has been found use- 



DISEASES OF COWS. 465 

fill. Copious injections of warm soapy water are given 
soon after. Two-ounce doses of carbonate of ammonia 
follow the purgative at intervals of three hours, with 
abundance of thin linseed gruel. If the later stages 
occur, thirty grains of nux vomica should be given and 
repeated every half hour and the injectious continued. 
When the animal becomes violent it should be secured 
where it can do no harm, and if need be, sheaves of straw 
should be so disposed as to protect it from injury. On 
recovery the feeding should be gradually restored and a 
course of tonics followed for two or three weeks. Bran 
and linseed meal mashes with gentian and ginger will be 
found useful. 

TUBERCULOSIS. 

The best bred and fed cows are subject to an insidious 
but most serious disorder which becomes constitutional, 
and is contagious under certain favoring conditions and 
disposition of -the exposed animals. This disease con- 
sists of the disorganization of the tissue of various im- 
portant organs and the formation of tubercles or cysts 
which are filled with solid grayish matter which in time 
changes to a soft, yellowish cheesy mass. These cells 
rupture and discharge this soft matter, leaving cavities 
of considerable size, which sometimes destroy the greater 
part of some important organ, as the lungs, liver, spleen, 
kidneys, etc. This disease is communicated by inocu- 
lation and by eating the diseased meat, or the milk, if 
the udder is diseased ; but it is more often produced as 
the result of some local inflammation which seems to 
offer a favorable opportunity for the development of the 
specific germ which accompanies this disease and which 
is abundantly scattered in the atmosphere waiting to find 
a resting place where it may serve its destructive purpose 
in nature. 

The symptoms vary considerably according to the seat 



466 THE DAIRYMA^^s'S MANUAL. 

of the disease, but under all circumstances there is con- 
siderable fever, with loss of activity, harsh skin, nauseous 
breath, stiffness and weakness of the limbs, dry cough, 
thin blue milk, swellings of the glands of the throat or 
of the joints, constant desire for the company of the bull, 
and unusual feverish brightness of the eyes, which are 
sunk in the orbits. If the bowels are affected there is a 
profuse and obstinate diarrhea. As the disease progresses 
the symptoms become more intense and in time the 
animal perishes from impaired respiration or the fetid 
and profuse diarrhea. x\t times the bones are affected, 
and these gradually crumble and slough away. 

Recovery is very rare, and when it occurs the animal is 
left in impaired health and too much weakened to be of 
any value in the dairy, more especially as the taint in the 
blood is surely transmitted to the progeny. Prevention 
includes the removal of infection, healthful breeding — 
avoiding the physical deterioration caused by too close 
inbreeding — and the use of only robust and vigorous par- 
ents, wholesome feeding, avoiding undue stimulus of the 
milking capacity, and the maintenance of vigorous con- 
dition by all the best hygienic methods. Drainage of 
fields and pure water are greatly helpful in this direction. 

VERMINOUS BRONCHITIS IN CALVES. 

Cattle are infested by a slender thread worm which in- 
habits the bowels, lungs and bronchial tubes. Mature 
animals are not seriously affected by these parasites, but 
calves are often attacked by them and suffer greatly, fre- 
quently dying of the interference with the respiration. 
These worms are commonly known as ■Stro7igylus fiJaria, 
and they are the same kind as those which produce 
'Opining," ^'paper skin," or anoemia in young lambs, and 
''gapes" in young chickens, and infest many species of 
small animals, as rabbits, pheasants, etc, Consequently 



DISEASES OF COWS. 467 

the eggs are widely distributed in meadows and pastures. 
They gain access to the lungs and air passages of the 
calves from the stomach, to which they are carried in the 
egg form, with grass or hay from fields which have been 
pastured ^^J older cattle. The young worms crawl up 
the gullet to the throat and pass downwards to the bron- 
chial tubes, where they live upon the mucus secreted by 
the irritated membranes. When they become numerous 
they produce such irritation as to cause a constant hack- 
ing husky cough, whence the disease has taken the com- 
mon name of *^ husk." In time they gather into masses 
and obstruct the passages so much as to cause suffoca- 
tion, and the calf falls into convulsions and dies. Pre- 
vention is obviously difficult, but cure is easy. This 
consists in saturating the system with the fumes of tur- 
pentine, by giving long continued doses of half an ounce 
every morning one hour before feeding. This may be 
given in a teacupful of milk or some sweetened oatmeal 
gruel," and should be continued for ten days and then re- 
peated after an interval of three or four days. 

DEPRAVED APPETITE. 

At times cows and other cattle are found eating 
rotten wood, old bones, manure, and other coarse rub- 
bish. This unnatural appetite is due to some irritation 
of the stomach which deranges the digestion and causes 
a morbid craving for these substances. There are various 
causes for this irritation. The condition of pregnancy, 
disease of the liver, tuberculosis, and the presence of 
foreign matters in the stomach ; as balls of hair and 
other concretions of indigestible matter, stones, nails, 
and pieces of wire, will produce this result. The dis- 
order should be treated as ordinary indigestion, by giving 
pint doses of raw linseed oil and dilute nitro-muriatic 
acid as a solvent of the concretions and a tonic. Two 
(^yeims of the acid is given in one pint of water daily just 



468 THE dairyman's manual. 

before feeding. This disorder is almost al\vti3's associated 
with hide-bound, dry rough coat, and other evidences of 
unthrift for want of proper nutrition. The most nutri- 
tious food, is, therefore, to be given in moderation to 
secure perfect digestion. Bran and linseed mashes, cut 
roots with corn meal, and other good wholesome food 
should be provided, but given in light rations. Some- 
times this habit is caused by the j^resence of sand in the 
stomach taken in with grass which has been washed by 
floods, or from light sandy soils. In such cases, feeding 
fine middlings with moistened cut hay or green fodder 
will help to relieve the stomach by carrying off the ad- 
hering sand. 

KED- WATER. 

This is a disease of badly-fed cows which suffer from 
indigestion ; the result of which is to disturb the func- 
tions of the liver and change the condition of the blood. 
The blood is thin and watery from a deficiency of fi brine 
and red globules, which are lost through the kidneys, and 
communicate a dark brown, red, or black color to the 
urine. Cattle, feeding in woods or swamps and forced 
to eat coarse unwholesome herbage, are usually affected 
in this manner. The method of prevention is obvious. 
The mode of cure is to give an active purgative to relieve 
the liver ; a pint of raw linseed or olive oil, with two 
drams of podophyllin, may be given, after which copious 
drinks of linseed tea, with two-dram doses of chlorate 
o.f potassa, and two drams of powdered ginger, should be 
continued for several days. Nutritious and easily di- 
gested food, as bran mashes, cut feed with ground corn 
and oats, or chopped roots are required. 

VICES OF cows. 

Cows are given to few vices, and all that appertain to 
them are caused by faults of management, The most 



DISEASES OF COWS. 469 

troublesome are the habits of kicking, holding up the 
milk, and sucking themselves. Cows are caused to kick 
by fear; and the act is one of defense. Some young 
heifers kick when first handled in the effort to miik 
them and from nervousness ; but if they are gently used 
this trouble is easily got over and nothing more of it 
may be seen. If the young animal is then mismanaged 
a vicious habit may be formed ; if she is punished by 
beating, or is whipped, especailly if this is cruelly done, 
as is usual in such a case, the association of the punish- 
ment with the act becomes fixed upon the memory, and 
ever afterward the cow may be a kicker, because it 
naturally expects the punishment at milking time and 
tries to defend itself from it. The frequent change of 
ownership also greatly helps to produce this habit, be- 
cause some cows will resent the approach of a stranger ; 
but this only happens with very fretful cows or those 
which have been habitually ill-used. 

This habit may be prevented by the cautious and 
kindly treatment of the calf and heifer before she be- 
comes a cow. A young calf will usually make an at- 
tempt to kick when the udder and teats arehandled, but 
the objection is soon removed by gentle persistence in 
the treatment previously recommended both for calves 
and heifers, in regard to handling, brushing, and other 
familiar attentions. A cow that has been thus reared 
and trained will never become a kicker except by very 
brutal treatment. To cure this vice is sometimes, if not 
always, easy. There has never been found any difificulty 
about it when using patience and kind and gentle treat- 
ment, notwithstanding some occasional relapses and an- . 
noying accidents. The author's method of treatment 
has been as follows: — First, to secure the confidence and 
friendship of the animal ; second, to approach her cau- 
tiously, both to avoid alarming her and to secure oneself 
against an attack ; lastly, never to strike or punish the 



470 THE DAiRt^MAI^^'s MAKIJAL. 

COW for an attempt to kick, but, instead, to soothe her 
and so remove the fear of danger which has given occa- 
sion for the kicking. All this may be done by gently 
patting and stroking the cow, speaking to her when 
. approaching her, and familiarizing her to the handling. 
Arter this milk her in a small pail, which can be held so 
that it cannot be upset, and with the left arm pressing 
upon the cow's leg so that a kick can be warded off as 
much as possible. While milking, the cow is spoken to 
to attract her attention, and every movement about her 
should be slow and deliberate, so as to avoid anything to 
cause her to suspect that a blow might follow the move- 
ment. When the milking is safely over the cow is 
petted and spoken to, and a handful of meal or oats may 
be given to her. If a kick is made or threatened, the 
cow is never to be beaten for it, but spoken to kindly. 
No other person than the milker should approach the 
cow during the milking. Having entirely cured some 
cows by this treatment that had been in the habit of kick- 
ing badly, wholly dispensing with sticks and ropes, which 
only irritate the cow, we have confidence that there are 
few cows that have been so utterly spoiled that they may 
not yet be made quite gentle by it. 

Some cows kick because their sight is defective and 
they cannot distinguish the person approaching them. 
The author has had one such cow that was perfectly gentle 
and kind and free from all vice whatever, that would yet 
lash cut tlie foot when approached from behind without 
being spoken to, and especially when the udder was 
touched on the wrong side suddenly and without notice. 
Nevertheless, when spoken to she would turn her head 
and lick the hand stretched out to her. This cow's 
sight was not good, and the defect was shown in other 
ways. Such cows should be approached and handled 
always with gentleness, or they may be very easily startled, 
when it is instinctive with them to kick. 



DISEASES OF COWS. 471 

Holding up the milk occurs chiefly when the cow is fresh. 
A cow that has been used to suckle her calf will natur- 
ally prefer that way of being milked. It is most frequent 
with cows that are so habituated, and for this reason it is 
rare among those cows whose calves are not permitted to 
suck them. It is a fault more easily prevented than 
cured, and at the same time one that is very trouble- 
some and mischievous in its results. A fresh cow that 
holds up her milk nearly always provokes thereby an 
attack of garget and future loss of milk all through the 
season, so that the dairyman or owner of a family cow 
should be on the watch to avert the trouble. When the 
calf is habitually taken from the cow before it has had 
time to suck, the cow will come to her milk naturally 
and without resistance, and this practice cannot be too 
strongly recommended as a constant rule in the dairy. 
When, however, the trouble has occurred and a remedy 
is sought, we find how powerless we are to strive with 
the natural instincts of' an animal excited to stubborn 
resistance. Many devices have been tried and recom- 
mended to overcome this vicious propensity, but none of 
them is of much value. One of these is to hang a heavy 
chain across the loins ; another is to press upon the loins 
forcibly with the hands while efforts are being made to 
draw tiie milk. Others are to give some feed at milking 
time, or to distract in some way the attention of the cow 
from her supposed grievance. Soothing measures and 
perseverance, or the use of milking tubes, are the 'only 
effective remedies. To give some feed or salt, and to 
sit down and rub the udder and manipulate the teats as 
in milking, and to persevere with gentleness, is often 
effective ; but the only successful method of getting the 
milk is by the use of milking tubes (more particularly 
described elsewhere), by which the milk flows by force of 
gravity in spite of any unwillingness of the cow. The 
tubes are inserted gently into the teats and the milk runs 



472 THE DAIRYMAX'S MANUAL. 

in a stream until all is drawn off. This method, or any 
other, is only temporary, and to be used only in the 
special emergency, because of the danger of injuring 
the lining membranes of the teats and producing inflani- 
' mation of the udder. 

Self-sucking is the worst vice which a cow can con- 
tract. It totally destroys her usefulness and is a constant 
source of loss and disappointment. It is contracted by 
old cows as well as young ones, and cases occur in* which 
ten or twelve-year old animals begin to practice the vice. 
How it is learned seems to be unknown, but it is more 
frequent than might be suspected. The remedies pro- 
posed have been numerous, but all fail excepting that of 
slitting the tongue, by which the act of suction is made 
impossible. It may seem that this is a cruel and unusual 
punishment, but it it not so severe an operation as cas- 
tration, and we do not hesitate at that to increase the 
value of our male animals. Even a kind owner need 
not hesitate to recommend the oi3eration of slitting 
the tongue when the cow is a valuable one, the division 
being made two inches in length. The operation "should 
be performed when the cow is dry, and the wound heals 
very soon. It is necessary to give soft food or slop until 
the healins: is well advanced. 

Eecently, having been consulted by the owner of some 
valuable cows which had contracted this vice, the author 
designed the following harness which wholly prevented 
the trouble. A surcingle was buckled around the cow 
behind the forelegs, and a halter was made for the head. 
Both of these were provided with rings to which a stiff 
rod of tough wood was fastened by snap-hooks at the 
ends; the rod being passed between the forelegs. This 
necessarily prevents the cow from brinoing her head into 
the position required to reach the teats. 



INDEX. 



Asterisks (*) indicate lUicstraiions. 



Abortion in Co ws 430 

Epizootic 431 

After-Birth, Retention of .457 

Agrostis Stolonifera 69 

vulgaris 69 

Alopecurus pratensis 70 

Aphtha 460 

A rrhenatJierum Avenaceum 70 

Ayrshire Breed, The 33 

Barn, ADairy* 399 

for Winter Dairying 411 

Barn and Stables, Cheap* 109 

Bloating* 461 

Blue Grass 72 

Borax for Preserving Butter. - .305 

Bran, Wheat-. -- 133 

Bull, Managing a 53 

Butter, Composition of 286 

Disposal of at Fancy Prices .300 

Granular* 278 

Materials for Preserving .-303 

Packages for* 294 

Product of 151 

Quality in 296 

Salting and Tacking* 290 

Salting.... 304 

; Soft.. 284 

When, Avill not come .282 

Calf, Managing the . . . 56 

Calf Pens, iPlan of* 187 

Calves, Kearin?. for the Dairy. 184 

Cattle, Dutch Belted 44 

North Holland 36 

Swiss 44 

Centrifugal Creamer* .232 

Separator . 211 

Cellars for JNlilk* 239 

Cheese, Composition of 336 

Cheddar, EngUsh 352 

American 354 

Fancy* 364 

Pot 370 

Sage.. ----374 

Edam* - -375 

Neufchatel -..-. 379 

Brie ..--..--382 



Cheese, Roquefort* 383 

Camembert* 388 

Factory*... .345 

Apparatus for* 350 

Cheese Making -336 

Mechanism of 344 

Process of 351 

Chemistry of 357 

Choking 462 

Churning and Churns. 275 

Rules for ...275 

Effect of* 279 

Cisterns*.--. 121 

Clover.-.. 62 

Cold Storage for Butter 306 

Colostrum* 194 

Cotton-Seed Meal 136 

Corn as Grain Food 132 

Cow, Points of a Breeding 56 

The Native 30 

The Family ....419 

Cow-Peas 133 

Cow-Pox* .445 

Cow Stable, Cheap*.. 117 

and Yards* 98 

Cow Sheds* 107 

Cows for the Dairy 26 

for Winter Dairying 410 

Vices of .468 

Cream as Food . 274 

Clouted---- ..269 

Chemical Changes in 267 

Churning Sweet 266 

Color of 212 

Diluting, with Water 268 

from Transpoi-ted Milk ...263 

Globules -- ...210 

Ripening 270 

Right Stage for Churning. .270 
Separation by Centrifuge- .261 

Specific Gravity of 208 

Variation of 211 

Creameries - - -309 

Creamery, A Connecticut* 309 

for 600 Cows* 317 

Crested Dog's Tail 71 



474 



TNDEf. 



Crops for Dairy Farms 59 

Cyiiosurus cristatiis 71 

Dactylis glomerata 71 

Dairy Buildings 97 

Cows, Breeding and Rear- 
ing 50 

Farming 7 

Farm, Flan of* . 21 

Management of Author's -.178 
Daily Stocli,-Cost of Keeping.. 28 
Dairv-House, The Author's*. . .249 

Dauyina-, Milk 397 

Winter-- 407 

Dairyman, WTiat a, should be.. 9 
Dairymen, N. Y. State, Prac- 
tice of 172 

Deep Setting ... ...237 

Depraved Appetite 467 

Devon Breed, The 45 

Diarrhea 463 

Diseases of Cows 426 

Mammary Glands*-. 438 

Dry Murrain 464 

Ensilage of Fodder 88 

Cost of 96 

Ergotism 461 

Farm, Managing a Run-Down-164 

The Author's* 21 

Farms, Dairy 17 

Family Dairy, The - 418 

Fescue, M-eadow 72 

Grass, Tall- 72 

Festuca Pi-atensis 72 

elatior 72 

Floors, Stable* ...102 

Foaming in the Churn .283 

Fodder, Cutting the 160 

Corn r 60 

Foods, Concentrated .154 

Condimental . .142 

Composition of Dairy 129 

for Use in the Dairy 127 

Manurial Constituents of -.171 

Scientific Analysis of 153 

Fowl-Meadow Grass 70 

Garget, Treatment of 442 

Gould, John, on Ensilage 93 

Gould, John, on Creameries... 321 
Grass and Clover Seed, Sowing. 67 
Grasses for Pastures and Mead- 
ows 66 

Table of, for Permanent 

Sowing 73 

Hay Maliing. - 77 

Heifers, Feeding and Training- 189 

lee-House, ACheap* 326 

for Private Dairies* 330 

Rustic* 331 

aud Creamery* 332 



Ice-Houses ^24 

Ice-Pond, Dam for.. .325 

Ice, Packino: for ._ .. 329 

Impaction of Stomach .464 

Jersev Breed, The - - . 37 

Kicking Cows 227*, 470 

Law^es,"Sir J. B., on Feeding for 

Manure - - 167 

Malt Sprouts l.^o 

Mammitis or Garget 442 

Manure, Disposal of 86, 110 

Management of Cows in the 

Stable 175 

Margarine 289 

Meadow Foxtail Grass 70 

Milk, Analysis of* 200 

and Milking Apparatus.- -213 

Botthng*..^. 406 

Care of. .231 

Cooling 403. 

Composition of 191 

Daily, Managing a 400 

Diseased 449 

Distribution of* 404 

Fever .... 450 

Formation of* 196 

Holding up- the 223 

Houses* 242 

Organs, Development of .. 55 

Ropy 1 95 

Spattering 226 

Testing, with Lactometer-205 

Trouble with 228 

in Winter Dairy 412 

Milkers, Hard* ..225 

Milking Furniture 219 

Intervals of 217 

Methods of 215 

Process of .220 

Tubes* 222 

Millet 63 

Mold in Cheese 362 

Muncy, Professor, on Mixing 

Food -161 

Nutritive Elements 75 

Oats, Ground .131 

Oil-Test for Cream .272 

Oil Meal, Linseed 136 

Orchard Grass 71 

Palm Nut Meal...- ...135 

Pans for Setting Milk* ..253 

Peas as Food for Milk - 132 

F?ilcum pratense 70 

Poa serotina 70 

Foa pratensis 72 

Polled Norfolk, The 46 

Pregnancy, Period of 58 

Rations, Feeding 147 

Red Top Grass 69 



IKDEX. 



m 



Hed Water 468 

Refrigerator-Closets for Milk* 252 

Rennet* 340 

Rice Meal 135 

Root Crops. 63 

Rules, One Hundi-ed 392 

Rye for a Soiling Crop S3 

Sabbath, Observance of 159 

Salt in an Animal 142 

Seed, SoAving Grass and Clover. 67 

Self-Sucking Cows .469 

Setting Milk ...234 

for Cream 255 

Shallow Pan System 238 

Shelves, Rotating, for Dairy*.. 251 

Shorthorn Breed, The 32 

Silo, Description of 91 

Soiling and Soiling Crops 80 

South, Dairying in the 24 

Southern States, Soiling in 87 

Specks, White, in Butter 284 

Spring, Drawing Water from a. 120 



Spring-Houses*. .246 

Soiling, Cutting Fodder for 84 

Stable for a Family Cow 113 

with Poultiy House 115 

Yard and Pens, Plan of* . . 98 

Swiss Cattle, The . i4 

Tall Oat Grass 70 

Temperature for Churning 281 

Timothy Grass 70 

Teat, Fistula of 449 

Teats, Obstructed 448 

Testing the Yield of Milk 138 

Tethering Pins* 422 

Tuberculosis. 465 

Tumors of Jaw .459 

Uterus, Eversion of 456 

Vaccine Variola— Co w-Pox*... 445 

Verminous Bronchitis 466 

Vices of Cows 468 

Water Supply 118 

White Bent Grass. 69 

Yard for Dairy Cows 104 ♦ 



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